


Six Hugs

by UnicornPopcorn14



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, It was supposed to be a 1+5, Series of One Shots, Sorry I'm not creative, Spoilers, Wholesomeness, one shots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24197125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnicornPopcorn14/pseuds/UnicornPopcorn14
Summary: There are moments in life, in which it is too hard for a person to smile.But whenever that happens, IT’S CUDDLE TIME!Believe me, it always works.
Comments: 77
Kudos: 190





	1. Donnie's Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post "The Purple Game"
> 
> Donnie’s still having dreams about that time…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda inspired by [this](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/615964748129992704/puppet-on-a-string-epilogue-cover-p1-p2-p3). It was only a short sentence by Donnie in the comic, but it sent a whole new idea to my brain. Check out the comic’s cover [here](https://jadethest0ne.tumblr.com/post/612172993621278720/puppet-on-a-string-cover-start-reading-p1) if you want to read it! It’s super angst-y, fun and well-drawn! Send the artist a LOT of love! <333

Four days.

That’s how long Donnie hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep.

He wouldn’t say that it was a new thing for him. Donnie barely got sleep when he was working too much on a new invention. Or focusing on anything in general that required him staying up at night and broad day light.

But this instant was different.

For the first time, he ~~needed~~ wanted to sleep, but he couldn’t keep his eyes shut for too long.

Because of that damn night.

Having insomnia was never a common thing for Donatello. He could sleep with his favorite music jamming beside him for God’s sake. Maybe a part of it was because he stayed up until the break of dawn, but still, even in the few times that he had slept without working on something, he could at least doze off for a good amount of time.

So for him to have insomnia? That was weird…

But having nightmares was _way_ weirder…

He couldn’t recall a single time where he couldn’t sleep because of some nightmares. Heck, maybe this was the first time something like this happened to him. It was usually Mikey who encountered nightmares, and would feel better after any of them staying with him. But no way was Donnie going to ask for help from his bros. He was the expert. He was the ‘fix it’ guy. He gave help, not called for it. So yeah, he wouldn’t do this.

After all, it was his fault to begin with.

Did he worry about his brothers finding this out? Kinda. For now, though, he could only pretend that everything was normal. His bandana served a good purpose of hiding his _massive_ eye-bags. Some more cups of coffee would prevent him from passing out during missions. His excuse would always be ‘I was staying up all night working on something’. It wouldn’t take long for him to get over this whole situation, right?

Right?!

* * *

“C’mon, slowpokes! Where’s your energy at?!” Leo yelled while laughing, just as he made several back flips and leapt to the opposite roof. He raised both of his arms up after touching down,

“And he sticks… the landing!” He announced while panting

“Not bad, Leo!” Mikey called from the first roof, smirking, “But check this out!” He ran across the roof and did an aerial flip on it, continuing it with a tuck flip on the air and landing beside his brother.

“Ohohohoo~” Leo compliments, “Good stuff, Mike! Up high!” They both high fived.

“Now try and beat that!” Mikey exclaimed, targeting the other two.

Raph chuckled, then returned to the second oldest, “Would you do the honors, Donnie?”

Donnie smiled, meaning for it to come off smug but instead turned out tired. He realized that and turned to his tech-bo, fiddling with it, “I’d like to observe how you miserably fail before making my totally spectacular move~” He said smoothly.

Raph didn’t seem to take any offence, “Very well!” He stated before turning to the youngsters, “Get ready you two!” He said as he dashed roughly on the roof, and bent his knees when he was in the air.

“CANON BALL!”

Leo and Mikey’s eyes widened, deciding to run for it but it was too late,

_SMASH!_

“Ahahahaha~ Good times!” Raph laughed when he settled, his two younger brothers under him and too dazed to reply instantly.

“They’re just good times for _you_!” Leo exclaimed, trying to wiggle away.

“Oh, Raph. I always hate when you do that!” Mikey complained from under him, squirming.

“C’mon, guys!” Raph whined fakely as he stood up and helped his brothers, “You gotta admit that my flip’s the best!”

“Yeah, right.” Leo said while rolling his eyes, then shifted his gaze, seeing that someone was missing, “Where’s Donnie?”

Speaking of him, Donnie was still on the first roof, sensing a wave of dizziness hit him before he could do anything about it.

‘ _Oh, great…_ ’ A grimace crossed his face, his vision doubling and his head spinning. It was a thing that had been coming up to him since the whole ‘staying-up-at-night’ deal, at the most random times, too, and lately it had been hitting him more often. Like an unfriendly reminder that he needed to rest. He would usually wait for it to wear off. But in moments like these, and in fights, he wouldn’t get the chance to do so.

“Come on, Donnie! What are you waiting for?” Mikey yelled in a slightly mocking but confused manner.

“Yeah, are you scared or something?!” Leo exclaimed sarcastically.

Donnie was hardly hearing anything around him except for a quiet screech ringing in his ear, so he didn’t answer. And that rose questions to his three brothers. They looked to each other and shrugged, then turned their attention to the genius once again.

‘ _C’mon, focus…_ ’ He thought as he prepared himself, though he couldn’t determine precisely where the end of his own roof at. It was dangerous to just jump without the proper calculations. But what could he do at this moment? Just give in his own problem?

Shell to the naw.

He sucked a breath and without letting it out, he went for a run, relying on his other working senses. Unfortunately, it seemed that even his ‘moving-his-limbs-properly’ sense wasn’t working, because as soon as he jumped from the roof, with no flips what-so-ever, he landed wrong on his leg and rolled on the roof before having the chance of regaining his balance.

“UGH!” Donnie groaned before he could stop himself, pain lingering through his twisted ankle.

“DONNIE!” He could hear the three of his brothers rushing to him as held his head. And would you know it, the dizziness left him just as his brothers approached.

“You okay, bro?” Mikey was the one to ask while Donnie was still on the ground, looking up at them.

“Talk ‘bout ‘spectacular’!” Raph said while grinning down at the genius.

“Yeah, what is up with you?” Leo asked with a quirked invisible eyebrow, “You let us tap on your nerves earlier. That’s not the Donnie I know…”

Donnie plastered his trademark grimace and tsked, “I’m fine,” He attempted to sit then stand up, but his –likely- sprained ankle disagreed with him, and made him fall on one knee,

“Ow…” He moaned.

The trio exchanged concerned looks, before Raph spoke, “I think we’ve had enough top-side for today. Let’s go home.”

Donnie would’ve complained if it wasn’t for his throbbing ankle. He watched as his brothers nodded to each other, Mikey hopped on Raph’s shell for his favorite piggy-back ride, and left Leo behind to support Donnie.

“Save your energy. I can help myself.” Donnie said flatly when Leo gave him his hand.

“Uhhh, yeah, sure. Let me just leave the guy who hurt himself _by himself_ here forever.” Leo joked.

Donnie scowled and rolled his eyes, more annoyed by his epic-failure than Leo mentioning it. He ignored his brother’s hand and took his tech-bo, pressed a button to expand its length, and halted himself up with his weapon’s support. The whole time, Leo observed him carefully in order to catch him if he fell or anything.

Donnie winced as he put pressure on his ankle, then all of a sudden, giddiness attacked his head once again, and his wince deepened.

‘ _Not again!_ ’

“I don’t think you got this, Don Don.” Leo said, seeing the obvious struggle of his brother. Donnie didn’t reply to him, “Let me take it from here.” He wrapped Donnie’s arm around his neck, and once the purple-clad was secured, Leo started walking with him. The genius wasn’t complaining at all throughout all this, and Leo was getting kind of worried.

“Hey, if you think that your silence will make me let go of you, then you know nothing of Neon Leon!” He announced, choosing to mask his dread by getting himself in character. Leo looked down at Donnie to see any kind of reaction, but the said brother was staring at the ground, and the blue-clad just noticed that his brother was barely stepping with him.

Leo stopped moving, “H-Hey, bro, are you okay?” He asked, not bothering to keep his feelings in check anymore, because that was just concerning.

The tech-bo slowly slipped from Donnie’s hand, followed by a clank noise; and that threw the blue lover over the edge. He immediately panicked, “H-Hey, Donnie? Bro! Talk to me!” He fell to his knees and took the genius down with him, rested him flat on the roof, to see that his brother had passed out.

“RAPH! MIKEY!” He wailed, not taking his eyes off his older twin. He tried spanking his face weakly but in no avail, “C’mon, Donnie! If this’s some kind of joke I swear-!” he continued to pat his face, though knowing fully that the genius would never throw off a prank like this.

The other two took no time to reach them, and Mikey gasped then hopped off of Raph’s back, “Leo, what did you do to him?!”

“I don’t know!” Leo said panickly, “Is he still alive?! Did I kill him?!” he whined while looking up at Raph.

Raphael dropped on his knees and put his ear on Donnie’s chest, “No, you didn’t do anything, Leo. He’s okay.”

Leo let out a sigh of relief, and Mikey followed suit.

“How did this happen?” Mikey asked, “Did he just pass out?”

“YEAH!” Leo said defensibly, “One moment he was talking to me and the other he went dead silent!”

Raph raised an eyebrow, “Well, this’s weird. We shall probably get him to the infirmary, check if something’s up with ‘im.”

With nothing more to discuss, Raph picked up the genius, while Mikey stayed with Leo, trying to comfort him as the slider still believed that he had something to do with Donnie’s sudden knock out.

Well, he was wrong…

**ROTTMNT**

_He wasn’t tied to a chair; he wasn’t forced to do anything. In fact, the controller was in his palms by his own will, and he couldn’t let go of it. As if his hands were moving on their own. The footage in front of him had his all-known brothers, fleeing in front of the robot he was controlling. Each of them had bruises and knots. The tones of their voices startled him,_

_“DONNIE, PLEASE STOP THIS!”_

_“I-I CAN’T!” Why couldn’t he? Why couldn’t he regulate his own fingers? He was still pushing the buttons on the damn thing! Looking up at the screen again, he could see his brothers getting squished by the giant robotic hand,_

_that he was controlling!_

_“Donnie, I love you, and your gaming is hurting me!” He heard Leo’s voice mutter, “LIKE LITERALLY HURTING ME!”_

_“I’M SORRY! I DON’T-” He could only shriek before his finger pushed another button, sending the other arm straight up. Predicting what was the next move gonna be, Donnie was beginning freak out,_

_“Nononononono stop! STOP!” He was screaming at his hands, how ridiculous was that? His finger moved on its own, pushing the final button…_

_The metallic palm landed right on top of his brothers’ skulls, and screams where the last thing he’d heard from them,_

_“AAAAAAAAAH!”_

“ **NO**!” Donnie halted straight up, clutching the blanket that was on him as if his life depended on it. His panting didn’t lower right away, even when he made sure that what he saw was just a fantasy. Rubbing his eyes as they were hazy, Donnie huffed as he came to the conclusion that he was just having a nightmare…

…for the twelfth time in five days.

‘ _Wait a minute… I don’t remember going to sleep…_ ’ He looked around, this _was_ his room, but he had no idea how he got there.

“DONNIE! CAN YOU HEAR US?”

A hand landed on his shoulder, and a voice startled him, making him jump and screech,

“GAH! WHAT?!!” His eyes finally focused, seeing a mask-less Mikey in front of him, and a _really_ worried expression on his face. Donnie got perplexed, wondering how he missed the presence of his youngest brother. He then got more perplexed when he saw Leo and Raph behind Mikey, also worried, and also wearing no gear or mask.

Silence was what was filling his room right now, and when Donnie’s heart finally settled, a quiet question was all what he muttered,

“What are you three doing here?”

Offended expressions emerged, as expected, but Donnie was trying so hard to take their minds off his sudden wake-up call. He would rather get them to lash out on him than talk about his earlier problem. Whether they knew he had a problem or not, because Donnie didn’t know how long they’ve been watching him.

Well, judging by the mess that filled his usually neat bed, it was a great possibility that they had been sleeping with him this entire time…

…and Donnie was the one who woke them up.

Unluckily for him, his brothers didn’t lash out on him like he hoped, as Raph stated in sympathy,

“How long have ya been havin’ nightmares, Donnie?”

Donnie eyed him in a hard gaze, trying to send the message that he wasn’t comfortable with talking right now. Of course, after what they had just seen, they would not let him get away with it that easily, and Donatello knew it.

“That is none of your concern…” He uttered after moments of silence, too much of a coward to look up at them.

“Are you kidding me?!” Leo was the one to exclaim loudly. He walked on his knees and sat face to face with Donnie, with a fed up expression, “This _is_ totally our concern!” He began listing on his fingers, “You sprained your ankle, _with no one’s help_ , you passed out on me, not a second ago you woke us all up with a scream, and you looked like a confused cat who couldn’t find its owner when we called you afterwards! Now, you’re just gonna pretend that nothing happened?!”

Donnie frowned and averted his eyes, not allowing himself to spit it out.

“What is wrong with you, Dee?” Mikey asked worriedly.

Donnie closed his eyes, sucking in a breath.

“Look, Donnie,” Raph said with a sigh, crossing his arms, “You can’t fix everything on your own. Sometimes you gotta need help from us-”

“I don’t. need. anything.” Donnie murmured between gritted teeth, “I’m fine. I need no help. Why can’t you just accept that?”

“Why, you say?” Raph asked sarcastically, “Well, if you jus’ looked at yourself, then you might know why. You look terrible.”

“You say you’re fine, when there’s literally a seven size trash bag under each eye of yours.” Leo said.

Brushing a hand on his face, Donnie realized that his mask wasn’t on him, of course. His teeth clenched afterwards, only seeing that his brother was offending him rather than trying to help him.

“Is it about that Purple Dragon’s night?”

Silence lingered at Mikey’s sudden statement, and Donnie’s eyes widened before he could stop them. Eyes landed on him, waiting for an answer. Donnie was too shocked with how quickly Mikey figured it out to care about anything,

“H-How did you…?” He asked, his eyes not leaving his youngest brother.

“You mean the incident that happened in like, a week ago?” Raph asked Mikey.

Mikey nodded slowly up to the oldest.

“But why would Donnie have nightmares of- ooooooh~” Realization dawned on Leo’s face as he muttered, “How did you know, Miguel?”

“Well,” Mikey shrugged, “I’m an expert at many things, and nightmares are no different.” He turned to the scientist, who now had a blank face, “Do you usually dream about… um, say… killing us all-?”

“MIKEY!” Raph cut the youngest sharply, not letting the situation turn out worse.

But surprisingly, it didn’t.

Donnie and Mikey ignored Raph completely, and the genius let out an exhausted breath, not finding a point about hiding the problem anymore, “Yes…” He said, almost in shame.

All the brother’s features melted into a sad, sympathetic gaze.

“Then… why?” Leo stated brokenly, “Why didn’t you tell any of us? We could’ve came here and slept with you, just like we do with Mikey…”

Donnie frowned at his younger twin, “Are you hearing yourself right now, Leo? I’m not a kid anymore! I couldn’t have just come up with my teddy bear in hand to any of your rooms and asked for comfort!”

“Actually, you can, and any time you want.” Raph said, “Well, not exactly like you describe it, because that sounds ridiculous. But you could’ve at least told us that you’ve been havin’ trouble sleepin’. We wouldn’t have left your side!”

“Yeah, it’s not like your nightmares are as stupid as Mikey’s, anyway.” Leo said, smirking, “We wouldn’t have judged you!”

“Aha.” Mikey nodded in approval, before walking on his knees then wrapping his arms around Donnie’s neck.

It didn’t take a lot of time for the others to join in, and shortly, Donnie gave in and smiled,

“You guys are the worst. You know that?”

“Yup!” Leo exclaimed, “And, like it or not, we’re staying here tonight!”

“Aw, c’mon!” Donnie whined in a fake tone.

And they did. For the whole night they stayed with him and never let him go. Mikey was still clinging to his neck, and said that he was going to sleep like that, despite the few protests that Donnie insisted to mouth. Eventually, they all settled after some wacky jokes from Leo and laughed, and not a minute after, they were all cradled in a ball, the sole sound ringing in the room was Raph’s snores.

Donnie wouldn’t say that he’ll ever enjoy being close to his family.

But whatever sorcery they used on him worked, because that night was a peaceful one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3  
> Hope the ending was satisfyingly satisfying! ^^”


	2. Mikey's Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post the events of “Nothing But Truffle”
> 
> Mikey still can’t get over the fact that he was a total jerk that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter’s dedicated for the first reviewer of this story, [tmntstyle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmntstyle/pseuds/tmntstyle)! <33
> 
> \--------------------------------------
> 
> Actually, it’s me who can’t get over that episode. I hated it, simply because Mikey’s attitude towards Todd angered me. Even when he apologized at the end, my point still stands. It’s my least favorite episode, for sure, and I’m changing how it ended, RIGHT NOW!

Michelangelo knew how much that affected him, but he still wanted to hide it.

The naked truth lied before him, but he still ignored it.

No, no, no, not the fact that he was actually terrible, but the fact that he wasn’t as nice as he thought.

That thought… kind of scared him.

Because how often had he ever done this? What if he’d ever do it again? If ditching someone who literally sacrificed himself for him was that easy, then would it be as easy for him to ditch his own brothers?

If he was so easy to deceive, how long will it take till he becomes the reason any of them got in danger?

What if he used someone like this again? What if he’d already done this more than once?

What if… his brother already knew about his sins, but were too nice to come out and tell him to change?

He wasn’t the best.

He wasn’t pure of heart.

And that only means one thing:

He was going to change that.

* * *

Mikey sat on the couch, humming to himself as he was watching some video on his tablet. In all honesty, he wasn’t really so distracted with the video, because a second ago he’d heard one of his brothers, a high chance of him being _Leo_ , gasp silently from Donnie’s lab. Everything went silent afterwards, except for when Mikey heard quiet panicked whispers, probably between Donnie and Leo. Michelangelo was skeptical, but he didn’t want to get into something that didn’t involve him, especially between the two twins who got on each other’s nerves every so often. He just focused his concentration on the noiseless conversation, trying to come up with any sentence that could fill him in.

Suddenly, Leo came out of Donnie’s upper lab, and Donnie was following him. Mikey returned his gaze to the tablet, pretending that he hadn’t been fixing his hearing on them earlier.

“U-Uh… hey, Miguel…” Mikey could hear Leo timidly and nervously say while approaching, and Mikey plastered a smile and looked up to his older brother when he was in front of him,

“Hm?”

Leo scratched his neck, “So, I… *sigh* First of all, I’m sorry, please don’t kill me… I didn’t mean for this-”

“Leo ruined the painting you gave me.” Donnie cut in with no emotion in his voice, handing Mikey the framed sketch that held his said drawing. The picture, with the beautiful image of the sky, sea, and field, was devastated by the brown coffee that stained it. It was one of Mikey’s favorites and held a special place in his heart, and he gave it to Donnie in particular because he knew that the genius was the one who could take care of it. It was also a small gift after Donnie made him a new upgraded skateboard.

Yeah, Leo knew all this, that’s why he was so scared right now.

“Donnie!” Leo growled at his twin, not believing that he’d interrupted his speech with no hesitance. He then turned to the youngest, seeing that he was staring at the painting in horror. Afraid that Mikey’s gonna ignore him for the rest of the week, Leo began blurting out, “OhnononoI’msorryMikeyitwasanaccidentandI-”

“It’s okay…”

“-wasstupidbecauseIknowyoulove- …” Leo paused, “wait, what?”

Donnie’s face also twisted in shock, “ _What_?!”

“It’s okay…” Mikey repeated with a smile.

The twins looked at each other in terror, hardly believing this,

“I-I’m sorry, what now?” Donnie said, not bothering to bring on his nonchalant face, “Leo _ruined_ one of your treasured paintings, and you’re just letting him get away with that?”

Mikey’s smile didn’t fade, but remained as he nodded with no second thought, “Yeah. I can make another one. It’s no big deal…”

Donnie retreated with a blank face, now more shocked and more confused. He turned to Leo, searching for any kind of answer, yet his blue-banded brother seemed to be as surprised.

But it never hurt to question, “Did you blackmail him again, Leo?” Donnie asked suspiciously.

“Wha- NO! I swear, I didn’t do anything!” Leo said defensibly, approaching Mikey and putting one hand on each shoulder. Mikey, still with his deadly smile, merely looked up to him. “Bro, as much as I love your humble forgiveness, it _is_ a big deal. I deserve a scold, at least…” Leo said.

“Nah, it’s cool…”

“OH MY-” Donnie snapped, “Stop saying that it’s fine, because it is obviously not! And by the sequence of your behavior, you don’t seem fine, either!”

“Yeah, where’s ‘fire-eyed’ Mikey that lashes out on me whenever I make him mad?” Leo said with a sympathetic smile, trying to find a flinch in Mikey’s expression, but it didn’t come.

“Like I said, it’s cool. I love to draw. I can repeat this one-”

“If you paid attention, we’re not talking about your art anymore.” Donnie interrupted with a frown, “We’re talking about _you_.”

Leo nodded in approval, “Is something up with you?”

For the first time, a frown crossed Mikey’s face, “I’m being nice.”

“Heck yeah, it’s clear.” Donnie said sharply, “But you’re not being yourself.”

Mikey’s frown deepened, locking his gaze with the genius, “So am I just known for being the evil hothead here?!” He spat, before getting up, leaving the painting to drop on the ground, and heading for his room.

“Woah, woah, WOAH!” Leo caught up to him and held his shoulder, spinning Mikey with not-so-much ease. Donnie was right behind him, “What are you saying, Mikey? What’s that all about?” Leo asked, concerned.

Mikey dropped his gaze to the ground, sucked in a breath to keep his emotions in check, then looked up to them, “…sorry…” he said quietly.

The twins exchanged glances, before Donnie talked, “Michael, you’re freaking me out at the moment. Care to tell us what’s bothering you?”

“Now that I think about it,” Leo said, “You’ve been acting weird since yesterday. Something happened that we don’t know about?”

Yesterday, was the day Mikey went out with Todd.

And by the term ‘weird’, it actually meant that Mikey had gone to sleep once he was back, hadn’t eaten enough on breakfast the next day, and had spent the whole time sitting on the couch with his tablet.

He should’ve acted better.

“I-It’s…” Mikey was close to say what the problem was, but cowered in the last second, “It’s nothing.” He said quietly, then attempted to run to his room.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Donnie snatched Mikey’s hand before he could do what he desired, “It’s not ‘nothing’, Mikey. Spit it out, c’mon!” He said demandingly, sounding rougher than he intended.

“Let me go!” Mikey squirmed his wrist, but Donnie still kept on a tight grip.

“I’m not going to until you say what’s happening with you!” Donnie yelled.

“Donnie-” Leo tried to interfere, but silenced once Donnie sent him a death look.

“I SAID I’M FINE!”

“You know you’re not!”

“I JUST WANT TO GO TO MY ROOM!”

“And I won’t let you! Say it, now! What’s making you upset?!”

“WHY DO YOU EVEN CARE?!”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If something’s bothering you, you say it! That’s the rule!”

“Donnie, that’s enough!” Leo yelled, but was ignored.

“I’M FINE!” Mikey repeated again.

“YOU’RE LYING!”

“LET ME GO!”

“NEGATIVE!”

“I **HATE** YOU!”

_Gasp!_

Donnie’s eyes widened and freed his grasp instantly, then watched as Mikey’s teary eyes also went vast before fleeing to his room. Donnie stood there, face twisted in one of horror, and dropped his head once Leo put a palm on his shoulder.

Raph came rushing to the room, “I HEARD SOMEONE YELL THE H-WORD! WHO WAS IT?”

Leo and Donnie both looked up at him, trying to find syllables.

**ROTTMNT**

Mikey was sobbing harshly, his face buried under his pillow.

So, not only did he reject his brothers when they tried to help him, he also said the cursed ‘h-word’ to his second favorite brother, who, despite what he says, loves him deeply.

It was an unspoken rule between the four siblings. The only time when Leo said that word to Raph when they were young turned the whole day upside down. Leo didn’t speak, Raph didn’t eat, and it went on like that for a whole two days until Donnie persuaded both of them to talk it out. Eventually, they forgave each other instantaneously.

From that day on, that word was never spoken to describe one another ever again. They could use it on villains, objects, anything they didn’t like, but never to each other.

Mikey just broke that rule.

And that only added to the proofs about how much of a terrible turtle he was. Even towards his own brothers who would do anything for him. Donnie might never talk to him again, and that thought was enough to make Mikey sob louder and cry harder.

He’d been trying this whole time to hold in his emotions. He’d tried not to snap when the news about his art came to him. He’d tried so hard to be nice when he was supposed to be angry. And he never meant for the situation to turn out like that. He’d just been so pressured and that word was the only thing that came to his mind when he wanted Donnie to let go of him.

But Donnie was even right himself. If any of them were bothered by something, they say it. It was another rule that they followed, because keeping secrets had never brought anything good on their behalves, ever.

Oh, how he wished he could hide in his shell forever.

After some time, Mikey finally stopped crying, and was just staring ahead of him. He didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t want to get out. He’d hopefully locked the door to his room.

Who was he kidding? There were no doors in his room.

Mikey could hear a ruffle, recognizing the sound of the certain being pulled over. He huffed, turned around, now his shell facing whoever entered, and hugged himself. The scent of his blue-banded brother filled the room, and Mikey was half-disappointed that Donnie wasn’t the one who came.

The youngest listened as the chair was brought next to his hammock, and Leo silently sat on it.

He wouldn’t lie, Leo’s silence was kind of startling, and for a second Mikey thought that he had guessed who came in wrong. He was about to turn around and glance, but stopped himself in the last minute.

After a while of silence, Mikey finally gave up, and broke it,

“I’m the worst person on Earth, aren’t I?” He said quietly, meaning to joke but his hoarse voice didn’t help.

He listened as Leo sighed and finally spoke, “Listen, Miguel.” His voice was surprisingly quiet and collected, unlike Mikey expected, “I’m not going to ask you about what’s going on with you, or about your attitude, or even about what you said earlier. But I’m only gonna ask you this: Do you think that we hate you, Mikey?”

Mikey’s eyes widened as he shot up, now sitting on his hammock, “What? No! Of course not!” He paused, then tears collected in his eyes as he stared at his feet, “W-Well, Donnie probably does, now.”

Leo frowned, “ _Only_ because of what you said?” He asked.

Mikey shook his head as he sniffed, “No, but also because I’m the worst brother ever.” He crooked, his voice cracking.

“You know that’s not true, right?” Leo’s voice softened.

“No, it’s true!” Mikey wailed, locking his gaze with Leo’s, sobbing once again, “I’m too proud of myself to care about the negative traits in me, I get angry pretty easily, and don’t get me started on Dr. Delicate Touch!”

“Mikey, listen-”

“No, _you_ listen! Not only am I the worst brother, I’m the worst friend ever, too! I left Todd when he needed me! I betrayed him when he sacrificed himself for me! When he saved me, I didn’t thank him! And now I told Donnie that I hated him!” He choked onto his own words, crying, “I’m the worst!”

Leo didn’t do or say anything that indicated that he was surprised, or shocked, but only got up from the chair and climbed on Mikey’s hammock, scooping the youngest with him. They both rested together, with Mikey still letting out tears.

“I know what happened, Mikey.” Leo breathed while talking, “And you shouldn’t beat yourself up because of it.”

Mikey paused, “H-How did you-”

“We called Todd and he told us about what happened.” Leo explained calmly, “He himself said that he didn’t blame you. If his favorite hero finally accepted him, he wouldn’t miss the chance of staying with him.”

Mikey thought this through, then muttered hesitantly, “So I did the right thing?”

“Not precisely.” Leo said, “But you _did_ learn from your mistake, didn’t you?”

Mikey nodded slightly, sensing something off about Leo’s tone, but didn’t bring it up, “I still can’t believe I got tricked so easily.” He said.

“That Swaggart is known for his dirty work,” Leo spat, and Mikey knew that he was aiming his hate towards the pig mutant, “so it isn’t your fault, Angelo.” He finished with a smile down at the youngest.

Mikey smiled back, nodding weakly, then his face suddenly twisted into a perplexed state, “Wait a minute… ‘Angelo’?” He whispered to himself, quietly enough to not startle –who he thought was- Leo, then looked up to him on the eye, seeing that they weren’t matching Leo’s eye color.

But another genius turtle.

“Hey, you’re _not_ Leo!” Mikey said while jumping, causing the eyes of ‘Leo’ to widen in hesitance and look away, sweating and chuckling awkwardly,

“I-I have no idea what-”

Mikey rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms, “I don’t know how you did it, but come out with it, Don!”

‘Leo’ stared at him for brief seconds before sighing in defeat, “Busted myself faster than I predicted, how wonderful.” He landed his hand on a watch that Mikey had never seen before, and turned it, for the hologram to disappear and expose Donnie.

“Woooaaah!” Mikey mused, his pupils turning as stars, “How did you do that?! A new invention?”

A grin crossed Donnie’s face. Mikey was the only one who found his inventions interesting, “Positive. A new disguise generator watch! Pretty rad, huh?”

Mikey nodded briefly, then got confused once again, “B-But your smell?”

“You mean Leo’s cheap perfume? Just sprayed a lot on myself. Not sure if I’m going to be able to get rid of it very soon.”

Mikey smirked, quirking an eyebrow, “Does Leo know about this?”

Donnie’s grin still stood, “As a matter of fact, yes. We were contemplating about who was going to talk to you, and that was when I remembered that I’ve completed my greatest creation. Leo was the one who sprayed me with a gallon of his perfume, actually.”

Mikey let out a laugh, imagining the scene, “And why did you even decide to use it?”

Donnie paused, averting his eye slightly, “I wasn’t certain that you would take my visit lightly, but Leo was threatening me to go inside your room, or else he was going to mess up with my tech.” He chuckled to himself, “He told me that he didn’t want what happened between him and Raph years ago to repeat again…” He finished.

The youngest’s face fallen slightly, but decided to change the topic, and smirked, “You know? You don’t make a very great Leon.”

Donnie stared at him for a while, before chuckling, “Of course I don’t. You realize how difficult it is not being able to talk with scientific terms? What a nightmare!”

Mikey, with a toothily smile, rested his head on top of Donnie’s arm, and let the scientist cradle his head close to himself.

“Are you mad at me, Donnie?” Mikey asked quietly after a minute.

Donnie let out a breath, “Not at all, Micheal. I know you quite enough to see that you did not signify any of what you said.”

“But I was mean…” Mikey whined.

“And I got so worked up for no reason.” Donnie replied instantly, then sighed, “I just couldn’t stand the fact that you were hiding your true feelings about what happened.”

“I’m sorry…” Mikey whispered.

“I forgive you.” Donnie said, before remembering something, “You know? You’re not the only one who makes mistakes, Mikey. I’ve once made a wrong move similar to yours, and joined the Purple Dragons the first chance I got, even when April warned me about them.”

Mikey eyed him sadly, “B-But you didn’t know that they were tricking you!”

“That statement applies to you as well.” Donnie stated knowingly, “That filthy Sweat used you to get what he wanted.”

“S-So… you don’t want me to change…?” Mikey questioned slowly.

“Change?!” Donnie eyed him unbelievably, “Heck no, Mikey! Why would you even think like that?”

“Because…” Mikey uttered sorrowfully, “I get angry so easily. I thought that you hate that…”

The genius stared for some seconds before huffing, “So that’s why you did not attack Leo earlier…” He spoke to himself, then talked more loudly, “No, we don’t hate that, Mike. If anything, we love you the way you are. Even Dr. Delicate Touch is great, and helped us a lot!”

Mikey’s face lit as he beamed, “Really? He can stay?”

Donnie smiled, “He can stay.”

Mikey’s smile widened, a true smile, Donnie knew, and the youngest turtle nuzzled his head on Donnie’s shoulder, “I love you, Don.”

Donnie sighed in relief at Mikey’s words, and decided to forget that his baby brother ever said the opposite of this statement to him, “I love you too, little brother.” After saying those words quietly, Donnie turned to the curtain, “Come out! I’m aware that you’re hiding!”

Mikey watched as the curtain opened, revealing Leo and Raph just outside the room, and by no doubts had heard everything.

“It worked, huh?” Leo smirked smugly, crossing his arms.

Mikey was the one to nod with a bright beam.

“Aw, c’mon, little fella’s! Group hug attack on Mikey!” Raph was the one to announce, and Mikey could only squeak before he was wrapped with six strong, safe arms. The youngest hummed happily in solace, all his past ugly thoughts about himself leaving his mind.

“Sooooo, Mikey, now that everything’s back to normal…” Leo said hesitantly, “You still forgive me, righhhht?”

Mikey gave a glance to Donnie, and they both exchanged a nod. The box turtle’s features turned into an evil frown, before jumping on his immediate older brother,

“YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!”

“GAAAH! I SWEAR IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!” Leo said while running in circles, “DONNIE, TELL HIM!”

“It was definitely intentional.” Donnie said calmly with a smirk.

“WHAT? YOU LIAR!”

“DONNIE NEVER LIES!” Mikey said while laughing, still running after his brother.

Everything worked out at the end. Well, except for that Leo was forced to repaint the art he destroyed. It took him a week to master it, still with a _little_ help from his baby brother.

Mikey had called Todd shortly after, apologizing for everything he did. Todd was nice enough to forgive him immediately, and additionally suggest that he could pay him another visit, this time, with no villains around them.

Thereafter that incident, Michelangelo realized how lucky he was to have 3 brothers, and a great friend, accepting him for who he was. They never wanted him to change; none of them ever needed to change, because they were just a perfect family.

Lesson learned. Mikey would never hide a secret from his brothers again.

And would never say that ‘h-word’ to any of them again.

…

He should probably delete the stupid selfie with the pig from his phone, as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Megamind references! Who doesn’t love those? :D
> 
> Sorry Raph, you didn’t exist in this chapter…


	3. Raph's Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follow the events of “Mrs. Cuddles”
> 
> Now he’s afraid that everything’s watching him…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Mrs. Cuddles” is one of the most relatable episodes for me. I’ve grown up scared of dolls and any inanimate object with eyes, simply because my cousin had forced me to watch “Child’s Play” and “Annabelle” when I was like, nine years old? So yeah, from that day on, I expected nothing but the worst from any doll I had.
> 
> Raph in this chapter is me right after watching the movies. XD
> 
> \--------------------------------------
> 
>  _Italic_ \+ Underline= _Hallucinations_

So what if he was a little shaken?

So what if he couldn’t get some sleep out of fear?

So what if he had collected all the dolls he had in a box, and shoved it away from his sight?

That meant nothing.

He was fine.

Well, Raph was thinking all this, when he knew that he wasn’t.

He knew he wasn’t fine. He knew he needed to talk about this with his brothers. He knew that this was going to come out, eventually.

But what if his younger brothers only kept mocking him?

He was supposed to be the oldest, the toughest, who held the responsibility of protecting his brothers, and even April. If something happened to them, then it was all his fault. Not Splinter’s, not April’s, not any of his brothers’. Just him.

And he’d gotten swept away by a small, stuffed, puppet; just because his phobia had gotten the best of him.

What if Splinter hadn’t interfered that day? What would’ve happened, then? He wouldn’t have figured out how to defeat Mrs. Cuddles if it wasn’t for his father; so would’ve he just given up to his own dreads? Would’ve he failed to protect his brothers?

And a question without an answer leads to another question without an answer, and Raph began to think that some things are better left for himself. If he was going to struggle upon something stupid, then it was probably for the best to keep his family out of this.

It was enough as it was that his _baby brother_ had told him to grow up.

* * *

“Guys, they’re heading for the puppet shop!” Mikey yelled while running, alerting his brothers.

“Why don’t we just leave them?” Leo asked annoyingly, while also running.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Leaving mutant Silverfish to wreck an innocent owner’s place would totally be the right thing to do…” Donnie replied sarcastically.

The three youngsters were about to enter the place, until they heard the oldest speak,

“G-Guys… I’mma wait here for ya…”

The three others exchanged confused glances. “Um, why?” Leo asked.

Raph perked up, sweating nervously while trying to come up with an excuse, “U-Uhm… tooo… guard?... The place?” He spoke hesitantly.

“ _‘Guard the place’_?! Wha?” Donnie said unbelievably, “Raph, if something’s wrong, just come out with it!”

“Do you think we have time for this?” Mikey yelled, “They’re already stealing the dolls!”

“Alright, alright!” Raph exclaimed, “Leo, Mikey; go and take care of the situation. Donnie, you’re with me-”

“To what? Have a nice chat?!” Donnie asked irritatingly, “I’m sorry, big brother, but there are other important things to be done.” After calling out on his leader, Donnie and his brothers sprinted inside the puppet store.

Raph stood there, cursing inwardly as he took a step forward and then a step back. The place seemed as creepy as it was from the outside, with the wooden puppets hanging from the strings, beaming behind the display window; so what the hell would it be like on the inside?

Yet, he wouldn’t leave his brothers like this. He was the leader of the team. No way would he stay outside and leave the rest of the team to do the work. What if they couldn’t take out all the mutant Silverfish on their own?

“Okay Raph,” He spoke to himself, taking a deep breath to calm himself down, “You got this. Don’t think about what’s inside. I-Imagine it as a pizza place!” He chuckled in uncertainty, then braced himself, before running inside the hell-hole.

“Guys?” Raph asked, passing by a bunch of dark aisles, and each one looked empty, “Man, this place is huge!” He mused to himself, then called for the second time, “Guys, where are you?”

“Raph! We’re at aisle three!” Raphael heard Leo reply, his voice distant. The oldest came to a halt, as it seemed that he had passed the aisle his brothers were in without noticing. He began running once again, but in the opposite direction, “I’m coming, guys!” He yelled after hearing something crash, but couldn’t pinpoint what exactly as the place was pretty dark.

All of a sudden, light switched on, and Raph came to a sudden stop to acknowledge the place he was in. His eyes travelled around frantically, but paused when the light started flickering on and off with a buzzing sound-

_Bzz- Bzz- Bzz_

A cold sweat ran down his face, and he gulped as he couldn’t make his body move. He closed his eyes and took deep quick breaths, trying to keep himself from freaking out. Not only was he alone, he was also in a freakin’ puppet store, surrounded by those glassy eyes that shot through his very being.

‘ _You can do this, Raph…_ ’ Raphael encouraged while wrapping his arms around himself, deciding to move slowly while staring at the ground. This way, he wouldn’t be able to see the dolls, ‘ _You can do this. Just get to your bros, finish the job, and you’ll all get out of this creepy, freaky pla-_ ’

_ “Raphie…” _

Raph stopped with wide eyes, his body freezing, yet his eyes managed to move around in panic in order to know what was calling. It was a hushed, feminine voice, that could belong to a kid.

“HH-H-Who’s there?!” He stuttered, failing to keep his shaking in check. Looking around was a mistake on its own, because Raph was able to see each one of the puppets, some stuffed, some wooden, some polished. Most of them were hanging from strings, like a horrifying image of people being controlled and executed, and Raphael’s heart dropped when _all the dolls turned to him slowly with a creaking sound, frowning with bloody smiles while calling out to him,_

_ “Come join us, Raph…” _

Raph jumped so hard and failed to keep himself from yelping. His heartbeats echoing in his ear as he held his head, “This isn’t real! This isn’t real!” He spoke to himself, panting hardly as if hyperventilating, “My brothers need me! Th-They… need…” His voice trailed _when he heard their next words:_

_ “Come and play with us, Raphie…” _

“No! No! Get outa’ my head!” He clenched harder, struggling to keep himself from imagining things…

_ “Your brothers will only laugh at you. Your brothers will never believe you.” _

“YOU’RE WRONG!” Raph screamed while grimacing harder, trying to block the voices away. _The image before him started to get shaky as soon as he lifted his gaze, turning into a mix of red and black, except for the eyes that were shining while holding those deadpan, deadly looks. Raph couldn’t breathe the moment their smiles widen and their frowns harden, sending a rough chill down his spine,_

_ “You’ll be happier with us, big guy…” _

“NO! I WON’T! STOP IT!” _He could only exclaim, before the puppets’ lips curled upwards instead of downward, seeming to get upset by Raph’s words. Raph was just panting and trembling as the scene before him became still for a moment, until a doll with a twisted face jumped in front of his eyes,_

_ “boo” _

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

**ROTTMNT**

“I found him, guys!” Mikey called to his other brothers, pointing at the place where most of the crashing sounded.

Right after capturing the mutant Silverfish, the three younger turtles had been startled by a rough scream, and got on high alert when they recognized the voice as their oldest brother’s. The sounds of shelves being wrecked filled the place, and Leo, Mikey and Donnie were 90% positive that Raph hadn’t gotten into a fight with a Silverfish,

but rather in another fight with himself.

And their theories were confirmed once they’d found him.

“Woah, we haven’t even left the guy for long…” Leo said while watching as Raph, with pupil-less eyes, was throwing the dolls away from his sight, and the blue-clad barely dodged a wooden puppet.

“SHUT UP!” Raph suddenly screamed at no one, then picked a shelf up, and threw it aimlessly towards his brothers.

“I don’t think Raph turned out like that because of being alone!” Mikey concluded while ducking from the huge shelf.

“Well, whatever the case, we need to get him back to his senses!” Donnie was the one to yell, “Raph! Raph!” He began calling.

“Raph! Snap out of it!” Leo followed, and Mikey shortly yelled after them.

The raging turtle paused, his complete white eyes turning their attention to the three figures before him,

_ “AHAHAHA! LOOK AT HIM, HE’S SO SCARED!” One of the red shadows yelled in a familiar voice. _

_ “WHAT A WEAK BABY, SCARED OF DOLLS!” Another one cackled. _

_ “I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT HE’S MY **BIG** BROTHER! AHAHAHAH!” The shortest figure yelled. _

“STOP LAUGHING AT ME!” Raph screamed as he dashed towards his brothers like a raging bull.

“‘Laughing’?” Leo asked in a confused tone, “Raph, what are you-” he was cut short as he dodged Raph’s lost fist, “WOAH!”

“Omigosh! He’s attacking Leo!” Mikey yelled in surprise.

“We have to hold him down!” Donnie said, the four metallic holders appearing from his battle shell, and he motioned for his baby brother to follow him, “Come on!”

Leo was hardly avoiding the attacks, and while he could still block some with his sword, the blue-clad knew that it was a dangerous and risky thing to do.

“Get to your senses, br- OW!” He was cut short when Raph punched him hard in the face, dropping him on the ground.

_ “You can’t even hit me right!” The figure before him shrieked mockingly, with its red eyes and black smirk that painted its face, as it was dodging every attempt of a punch. _

_ “RAPH WILL SMASH YOU TO PIECES!” He yelled, and swiftly sent his fist to contact with the figure’s cheek, dropping it on the floor. The red shadow was still laughing, even when Raph pinned it down, and trapped it beneath him. _

_ “AHAHAHAHAHAA!” _

“Raph, Raph, please snap out of this!” Leo called in a rush from under his older brother, watching as Raphael was breathing in and out hardly. Leo’s sword was nowhere beside him as it had sled across the alley when his brother jumped at him.

“STOP LAUGHING!” His red banded brother blindly roared.

“I SWAER I’M NOT!” The blue-clad screamed. Seeing as Raph’s fist rose again, Leo snapped his eyes shut in terror, tilting his head to the side and getting ready for the next thump.

But before Raph’s fist collided with his face, he heard Donnie yell,

“Gotcha!” The turtles in purple and orange jumped at their brother from behind. Donnie clung on his neck and forced him to back off, while Mikey held the rising arm that was about to punch Leo. The four arms of the battle shell helped in tying the leader’s legs and hands with a rope.

Raph roared and tried to throw whatever was on him away, but they clenched harder. _He looked up to identify what they were, and his eyes widened when he spotted the creature with six arms on him, and another smaller shadow that was preventing him from hitting the other figure under him. He lost his footing when something wrapped around his leg, causing him to fall on the side._

“No! NOOOO! YOU CAN’T WIN! MY BROTHERS! THEY NEED ME!” Raph shrieked harshly while attempting to free himself from the cord, but Donnie continued to secure him tightly.

“Can’t he see that _we’re_ the ones he’s attacking?” Leo asked in a grimace after being helped by Mikey to stand up. He was still panting from the previous freak-out he had and his cheekbone throbbed every time he talked, but didn’t back away from the leader and instead approached closer, crossing his arms while Raph screamed once again,

“STOP! STOP THE EYES!” He wailed while wiggling like a snake between the rope.

The youngsters exchanged concerned looks. “I believe he cannot…” Donnie said quietly, answering Leo’s prior question.

“THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! ARE EVERYWHERE! MAKE IT STOP!”

“What is he talking about?!” Mikey asked in panic, getting frustrated.

“The eyes…?” Donnie hummed thoughtfully and got up, looking around, his face perked in realization, “Oh…”

“What?” “Did you figure it out, Donnie?!” Mikey and Leo asked at the same time, still with Raph hollering,

“RAPH’S SCARED! HELP!” Tears began to develop in his eyes.

“We need to get him out of here, now!” Donnie ordered sharply, and Leo and Mikey only eyed each other before following. They used all their strength to pick the oldest up, but with Raph’s struggling and attempts to bite, the task was harder than usual and they dropped him.

“Raph, quit moving!” Leo yelled annoyingly, as if he was talking to the typical Raph.

“SCARY SHADOWS… DON’T SCARE… RAPH…!” Raphael spoke in another strive to bite.

“We’re not shadows! We’re your brothers, Raph!” Mikey exclaimed.

“YOU… LYING! STOP LAUGHING AT ME! HRRRRAAAAAAAA-”

Just when Raph was about to successfully cut the cord, Donnie got out a tazer from his tech-bo and _ZAPPED_ his brother, which resulted in the oldest screaming before passing out.

“DONNIE!” Both Mikey and Leo scolded in unison, and Donnie shrugged,

“What? Did you want him to go all banana on us again?! I had to!” The genius defended, before his voice turned stern, “Now, help me up with this before he comes round.”

Leo rolled his eyes unbelievably, and after they managed to get a grip of the oldest and lift him, he spoke, “I didn’t even want to _use my sword_ on him, and you just _electrocute_ him like it’s nothing?!” He murmured quietly, but still targeting his older twin.

“I didn’t electrocute him, I merely knocked him out for us to-”

“You electrocuted him!” Leo interrupted the genius with a scowl.

Donnie huffed, “Fine, I did. But just so you know, I did this because the rope was about to snap and It wasn’t my greatest wish to see you helpless under him once more…”

Leo’s frown deepened, seeing that his twin had a point in this, and turned his head away, “Whatever…”

After reaching the Turtle Tank; Leo, Donnie and Mikey put their leader flat on his shell. Mikey sat cross-legged beside his oldest brother, Leo kneeled down next to them without sitting down, while Donnie was distracted with his wrist communicator, tapping on it at a quick speed.

“Soooo, what’s with the big guy?” Leo questioned.

“Didn’t you hear him? He was afraid of the eyes…” Donnie said simply.

Leo and Mikey exchanged perplexed stares. “Which means…?” Mikey asked.

“Guys, don’t you get it? Raph has Pediophobia…” Donnie stated, a hologram appearing above his wrist.

“Donnie, you may be explaining but I don’t understand anything.” Leo interjected confusingly, straightening himself with a quirked eyebrow, and a hand on his hip.

Donnie sighed, pushing a button on his device, which made the hologram show on a big screen inside the Turtle Tank, letting Mikey and Leo see what he was seeing. The younger ones’ confusion rose as the images showed kids, as well as adults, screaming and jumping with a doll in front of them…

“Pediophobia is an irrational fright of things that cause no harm or threat… in our case, dolls.” Donnie said then turned to the screen, reading over the article, “This can be triggered by a traumatic event related to puppets…” He paused, looking over his brothers, “Remind you of anything?”

“Mrs. Cuddles…” Mikey was the one to say in a confident guess, alerting Leo. The blue-clad exchanged gazes from the youngest to the genius, who nodded firmly in confirmation of Mikey’s words. Donnie continued talking,

“Symptoms can be: Intense fear, sweating, screaming, shaking or trembling and distress. And what does Raph do when all of this happen to him?” He asked once again to his brothers.

“He turns savage…” Leo answered quietly, before looking over Raph, “And I thought he’d gotten over this whole situation…”

“Well, technically, he _did_ surpass his fear from Mrs. Cuddles…” Donnie spoke in a serious tone, “Yet, I have a strong feeling that what happened back there wasn’t all because of his phobia, and included a fear of something else.”

Leonardo’s head shot, “Yes! The whole ‘stop laughing at me’ and ‘spooky shadows’ ordeal! What was _that_ all about?”

“He’s never said those things when he turns savage after being alone…” Mikey pointed out.

“Yeah,” Leo nodded, “most of the time we’re ‘sewer monsters’ or some type of food…”

“I’m still looking onto that…” Donnie muttered flatly, not eying his brothers while typing into his gadget.

The blue and orange clad stood there, waiting for the genius to come up with anything. After a minute of nothing, Leo sat cross-legged beside Mikey, and looked over the sleeping oldest in a pitiful gaze.

“We really _did_ break this poor guy…” The statement came automatically out of Leo’s mouth, quietly enough for only Mikey to hear.

“That prank is the worst idea we had this week…” Mikey replied in shame, lowering his head.

“Which says a lot…” Leo continued, copying Mike’s tone. Silence lingered, then Leo spoke to himself, for a minute forgetting that someone was beside him, “It’s true that I haven’t seen Raph hold or talk about his teddy bears those past two days…”

“Think he got rid of them?” Mikey asked without tearing his stare from Raph.

“Big chance… yes…” The slider nodded, side-glancing the youngest.

Mikey sighed, before giving a quiet chuckle, “Stupid, isn’t it? The time when Raph decides to hide something like this, we have to go into a _puppet store_ against our own wills…”

A small smile crossed Leo’s face, “Kinda ironic, if you ask me…”

“Well, what did we do other than call out on him and force him to go inside?” Mikey said sorrowfully, “And we did the same thing once he said that Mrs. Cuddles was real.”

“Yeah, we were terrible…” Leo confessed quietly, “I mean, what kind of brothers were we? Only laughing at him when he almost had a heart attack from the thing…” He sighed.

“‘Stop laughing’…” Donnie suddenly muttered Raph’s previous words quietly, looking up from his screen with wide eyes. “That’s _IT_!”

Leo and Mikey jumped. “You were listening this whole time?” The slider asked in confusion, to be ignored.

“Raph didn’t come out and tell us what was bothering him because he was _afraid_ we would mock him!” Donnie said in a rush.

Leo’s and Mike’s eyes widened slightly, before the youngest uttered, “So you’re saying…?”

“Raph’s own horrors attack him when he’s in his savage state, guys!” Donnie exclaimed, almost proudly, “Which means that he saw us laughing at him in his vision. Still, not exactly as _us_ , because _he’d_ said ‘My brothers need me’ right after capturing him. So my _guess_ is that-”

“-he was seeing us as shadows this whole time…!” Leo concluded slowly, and Donnie’s excited face fell upon his twin taking the last sentence from him.

“Well, that makes alotta’ sense,” Mikey said, “Raph thinks he should _always_ be the tough guy among us. I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually thought that what had happened two days ago was his fault…”

“And I, myself, don’t think that it’s dumb that he’s got that fear…” Leo said, “I mean, we’ve all been there at one point or another. We can’t blame him for something that he can’t control…”

“Wow, never heard ya talk so maturely before, Leo…”

Donnie, Mikey and Leo tensed at the sudden voice, and turned to the ground to see their oldest brother with open eyes, smirking at them.

“ _RAPH_!” They all exclaimed, some in surprise and some in confusion. Leo and Mikey hopped and wrapped their arms around him, and Raph only chuckled while sitting, the rope still tied around him and his brothers still clinging on him.

“How long have you been listening, you dork?!” Leo asked, punching his brother’s shoulder lightly with a smile.

“A while…” Raph said simply in an obvious tone, and felt his wrists once Donnie untied him.

“Oh, Raph we’re so sorry.” Mikey, of course, was the first one to begin apologizing, “We were so mean…”

“Yeah, even if it’s seldom for me to be apologetic,” Donnie said, “I’m sorry for pushing you when you weren’t comfortable…”

“Yup, it was totally _their_ fault.” Leo said tauntingly, and shrunk when Donnie and Mikey sent him death looks, “And mine, I guess.” He chuckled.

“It’s cool, guys…” Raph stated with a half-hearted smile, “It isn’t yo fault I get so jumpy on ridiculous stuff…” He finished with a sigh.

“ _‘Ridiculous’_?! Dude, your phobia isn’t ridiculous at all!” Leo spoke with confidence, “In fact, it’s understandable!”

“You think?” Raph asked in doubt.

“Everyone’s afraid of something stupid, Raph. Like… y’know, Leo’s fear of being wrong.” Mikey said with a small smile.

“And Mikey’s fear of the dark…" Donnie said flatly, "And bubble baths… for whatever reason…” His small grin still stood.

“And Donnie’s fear of beach balls." Leo commented, "Or his fear of losing us, despite what he says…” He said deeply to Raphael.

Donnie’s eyebrow quirked as he looked to his twin, “Wait, how do you know that?”

Leo smirked while turning to Don, shrugging, “I know a lot more than y'all think…” He winked.

The soft-shelled rolled his eyes before speaking, “The point, Raph, is that none of us are perfect, including me, admittedly…”

“Your fears aren’t as ridiculous as any of our fears, bro.” Leo said, “And you know how we overcome them? By your support!” He beamed.

“Yeah, I can’t count how many times I asked you to sleep with me to stop getting nightmares.” Mikey said to the oldest, “And it always worked!”

“Your fights with me taught me that it’s okay to be wrong…” Leo admitted.

“And although I never overpowered my phobia of beach balls,” Donnie spoke, “I _do_ appreciate it when you and the others try and force me to play with you…”

“C’mon, bros.” Mikey smiled up to the twins, “Let’s give Raph his proper payback for everything he did for us!” Leo and Donnie nodded to him, and all three clutched on the snapper’s neck with wide grins.

Raph’s smile was going vast with each statement, and after getting hugged by his younger brothers, he closed his eyes, “I never realized how much you guys grew up.” He talked proudly.

“D’aaaw. Raphie-boy’s getting teary!” Leo taunted, even though he was getting teary himself.

“We love you, big bro!” Mikey stated while nuzzling his head.

“Did you know the best treatment for Pediophobia is family emotional support?” Donnie expressed slightly out of nowhere, his sympathetic smile not hiding.

“Then we’ll make sure Raph gets plenty!” Leo exclaimed.

Raph chuckled at his brothers’ sweetness, and the hug was staying longer this time, due to it being one for comfort. Eventually, Raph suggested that they should let go and head home, or else they’ll all doze off in the Turtle Tank without realizing.

Apologies were still leaving his brothers’ mouths, even after Raph assured them that he’d forgave them countless times. They’d also contacted April and told her about what happened, and she herself called Raph to also say sorry to him, and to additionally ask him which kind of pizza he liked in order to bring it over as an apology. Raph truly appreciated all this, more than he’d ever admit.

His brothers also tried helping him with his fear; from Mikey’s and Donnie’s therapy sessions, to all of them sleeping with him in the first nights after ‘the puppet store incident’. The snapper, in the end, knew how to deal with the phobia, and after some several nights, the box of his teddy bears was taken out, and his favorite toy was between his arms while sleeping.

Everything turned normal after a couple of weeks. The incident was forgotten, the vibes in the lair became normal. Yet a thing was never explained to Raph, though, and one day he decided to address it to his brothers,

“So… what happened when I turned all weird in the puppet shop?”

All bodies froze, and every eye landed on Leo, which perplexed Raph even more…

“Do you wanna tell him?” Donnie’s voice was quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boom! Raphie-boy’s complete! Hope you guys liked the horror part. ^^ 
> 
> Gotta say, this is the first time I put so many dialogues in a chapter.


	4. Leo's Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo’s fed up with how awful his twin is treating him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAN was it hard to decide what Leo’s chapter’s gonna be about! It was initially going to be [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24525664/chapters/59214208), but then I realized how dark it is considering the concept of Six Hugs, and changed the whole idea. Hope you like the new one better! ^^’
> 
> This shot is super long… 6,000+ words! What? Why?! How?!
> 
> \--------------------------------------
> 
> Takes place sometime after "Repairin’ the Baron" alongside "Air Turtle", so SPOILERS AHEAD!

“Hey, Dee, race ya’ ahead!” Leo called with a big smile, before running on the stairs in a hurry towards Draxum’s lab. He then stopped and turned around when he didn’t hear Donnie running behind him, and was disappointed to find his older brother staring at his wrist-communicator, and had completely ignored him.

“HEY!” Leo said while putting his hands beside his hips, “That’s rude, you know?”

Donnie boringly teared his gaze from the device to face his brother in an eye-roll, “Oh, please. I believe it’s enough that _you’re_ the one who had to accompany me and no one else. So I’m not really up for some ‘manner lectures’ right now…” He said, then returned to his wrist.

Leo was slightly offended, but let that pass when his smug smile came back; and started strolling backwards on the stairs, “C’mon, what’s the fun in walking?” He shrugged for emphasis, “Don’t you wanna _crush_ your favorite brother in a racing competition?” He teased.

Donnie rolled his eyes, in some disgust this time, “I don’t _do_ favorites, Leo.” He spat kind of harshly, disregarding Leonardo’s request, “Even if I did, I highly doubt that _you’re_ gonna take the highest rank, let alone _be_ a favorite…” He said easily, tapping on his device once more.

Leo’s face fell, turning around for his shell to face his brother again, “Well, thank you so much…” He muttered angrily, attempting to mask his slight hurt from his brother’s words. He didn’t say anything anymore, and continued to walk upstairs in a silent, awkward matter. It was like this for quite a while, before both him and Donnie arrived in front of the entrance, that swished open revealing Draxum’s huge laboratory.

“Wow, the place’s still neat…” Leo murmured in awe, looking around, as he’d expected that Draxum’s lab would at least be a little trashed, “So, what did he want us to do again?” He asked his brother, one hand on his hip, and holding his sword on one shoulder.

“For one, free the animals he captured…” Donnie said, “He wouldn’t be able to return here again, since he’s a wanted man in the Hidden City in the meantime, so the creatures he’s captivated would have nothing to eat or live with…”

Leo nodded in understanding, before jumping and landing on the bottom floor, seeing the said animals in green cages, whimpering slightly.

Donnie landed beside him shortly, and Leo spoke, “Poor creatures…” he stated in sympathy, then turned to the genius, “Do you see any kind of button that can open all these cages at once?” Without waiting for an answer, he strolled to the control panel, putting a hand on his chin as if thinking.

“I think that’s a bad idea…” Donnie replied, “Some of these beings may have been experimented on, so I don’t really think that we should-”

“Oooooh, looks like that’s the button!” Donnie was interrupted by Leo’s voice, and the purple-clad’s eyes widened when he saw his brother reaching for a red key.

“WAIT-!”

_Push!_

All the cages opened, and Leo smiled contentedly, “See? I made the job A LOT easier!”

“YOU IDIOT!” Leo jumped once he heard Donnie yell at him, “We should’ve checked the animals’ health stabilities! They might be savages! They might attack the innocent people out there!”

Leo gulped once he heard this, “Oops…” He said quietly.

“Yeah, keep saying ‘oops’ every time you do something wrong. That can only help!” Donnie snapped before reaching the control panel, tapping on the computer and checking each creature’s data for if one was dangerous or a monster. The sounds of some animals running out of the place could be heard.

“I was just trying to help out!” Leo said defensibly.

“And you’ve done a poor job of it!” Donnie exclaimed harshly, “Now, go make yourself useful and CLOSE THE DOOR!”

“WHAT?!” Leo yelled, “We’re gonna keep them trapped with us?! That’s gonna make them attack us-”

“DO AS I SAY!” Leo silenced once Donnie shrieked while shooting him a death look, and the slider dashed towards the exit, ran past the huge and small critters, pushed another button, and closed the door. The huge creatures pushed their brakes, now looking for another way out, to find none.

Leo threatened with his mystic weapon while retreating beside his brother, earning hisses and some attempts to attack from the creatures. Now standing in front of a working-Donatello, all Leo could do was scare those animals until the genius was finished.

“Are you done there, yet?” Leo asked, his eyes not leaving the monsters, “‘Cause these guys don’t seem friendly!”

“No, I’m gonna need more time. And you have to distract them!”

Leo got surprised, “Are you kidding?! Do you know how many of these ar-”

“Twenty-three. Most of what I see are predators, yes, but nothing too dangerous.” Donnie said, “Just distract them long enough for me to finish the analysis.”

Leo dropped a sweat and nodded, much to himself, “Time to do what I do best…” He whispered, then exclaimed, “HEY! BEAUTY GURUS! COME AND GET IT!” He sprinted and jumped across the lab, and, as expected, the animals followed him with ease.

After reaching some part of the lab that was far enough from his brother, Leo came into a halt and smirked, turning around to face the creatures. The first animal that jumped at him was a small red dragon, and Leo freaked out when it was on his face.

“GAAH! GET OFF ME!” He caught the dragon’s wings and got it off himself, causing it to fall on the ground. Leo’s eyes widened when another identical dragon did the same.

“LEO! THERE ARE FIRE-BREATHING DRAGONS AMONGST THESE ANIMALS! WATCH OUT FOR THOSE!”

“YUP, THANKS A LOT FOR THE HINT, DONNIE!” Leo exclaimed annoyingly after getting the other Dragon off his face. Blocking an attack from a bear-like creature, Leo barely took a minute to regain himself before a small black-rabbit bit him in the ankle.

“AGH! DONNIE! ARE YOU DONE?” Leo yelled as he kicked the bitter away, and another red-eyed snake with feet came attacking him.

“ALMOST, LEO!” Donnie replied.

“Well, I don’t think I got an ‘almost’!” He spoke to himself, trying his best to dodge the strikes and at the same time not hurt these animals too much.

“AND DONE!” Leo heard his brother exclaim, then saw him running towards him, “Leo, get out of there!” Donnie ordered.

Leo groaned, reaching for his sword while lying under the bear before opening a portal beneath him, and falling in it.

“SAY GOODNIGHT, SUCKERS!” Donnie screamed, as he fired the weapon he’d just invented, and poisonous gas filled the place, causing all of the animals to fall motionless on the ground.

Leo’s other end of the portal opened to the second floor of the laboratory, and Leo landed on his shell with a grunt. The slider looked down, seeing his brother shooting the creatures with some kind of gas, and the said creatures dropping out cold. While watching what was going on, Leo failed to sense the huge bug that was creeping closer from behind him, and only did when the bug STABBED Leo’s arm with its stinger.

“AAAH!” Leo screamed painfully, shaken from the suddenness of the attack more than the attack itself. The blue-clad got his sword without thinking and jabbed the enormous wasp with it, for the bug to fall on its back, green substance making its way out of it.

“Eugh…” Leo moaned in disgust while holding his arm, panting from the amount of energy he’d just released. He looked over the part that got stung, and winced heavily when he saw the two-foot-stinger sticking out of him, and blood slightly trickling from it. “Ew…” He moaned again, now more painfully as his arm was beginning to grow sore.

After standing up, Leo took the sword from inside the bug, and opened a portal in front of him. Stepping inside then out, Leo found himself beside his brother, who was close to the animals, inspecting them.

“I heard you scream earlier.” Donnie said, not taking his eyes off what was beneath him, “Something happ-” He paused once he lifted his head, and saw the pained face of Leo. He got up and made his way towards him,

“What happened?” He asked sternly.

“A huge wasp got me,” Leo said while averting his eye, then took his hand off his arm in order for Donnie to see.

Donnie’s eyes widened slightly, and without saying anything, he quickly held the stinger and pulled it out of Leo.

“OW! Dude!” Leo jumped, putting his hand on the part that was letting out more blood right now.

Donnie inspected the stinger then turned to his brother, to receive a harsh fed-up stare from the blue-clad. “Well, what did you expect?” The genius stated, “For me to kiss it? To leave it there? Of course I had to pull it out.”

“At least warn me before you do that!” Leo hissed.

Donnie huffed in irritation. “Where’s that wasp?” He asked, ignoring Leo completely.

Leo frowned slightly, vexatious by this attitude, but decided to answer, “It’s right there,” Leo pointed upwards, “and dead…”

Donnie, without a word, left him and hopped to the second level. Due to being bitten, Leo only waited there, and lowered himself slightly to sit down as he figured that his brother was going to take a long time. Before he could relax completely, however, Donnie hopped off the second floor, and strolled towards Leo while staring at his wrist communicator, tapping on it.

The slider stood up once again, and the moment his brother was close to him, he spoke, “So, any idea what that thing was?”

“To me, it looked like some kind of a mutated Parasitic Wasp…” Donatello explained, staring at the device, “Which wouldn’t really do much harm towards you, since it can only paralyze small creatures, such as insects. Unless the ooze affected its abilities…” The genius then closed his digital implement, eying Leo, “You don’t feel anything weird, do you?”

Leo paused for some seconds, searching for any odd feeling, but ended with nothing. “Other than the soreness of my arm, I’m good…” He said.

“Great.” Donnie only said with no interest before moving towards the animals.

Leo followed his actions, stopping behind the soft-shelled while staring at the creatures, “What did you do to them?”

Donnie took out a syringe and a bottle, and without looking at Leo, he began working and explaining, “Just covered them with a sedative gas that forces them to sleep long enough for me to inject them with this antitoxin.” He said easily.

Leo rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, for me you just said: ‘blah, blah, blah,’ and I totally understood.”

“Science requires scientific terms, Leo…” Donnie said, injecting the animals, “Thought that you would’ve figured that out by now…”

“I’m not a scientist…” Leo countered, smirking, “Thought that _you_ would’ve figured that out by now, big brained.”

“Of course I did. With your dumb attitude, anyone can figure that out.” Donnie said flatly.

Leo paused, then a small frown crossed his face, “Okay, I get it. You’re mad about my earlier move. But that wasn’t my fault, alright? I didn’t know!” He stated in defense.

For the first time in that conversation, Donnie looked up to his brother in a frown, “That’s exactly the problem, Leo. How _didn’t_ you know? Anyone in his right mind wouldn’t have done what you did. Because anyone in his right mind would’ve at least considered how savage these creatures are!”

Leo’s frown deepened, “I just wanted to get the job done with! So like I said, I was only trying to help.” 

“And like _I_ said, you’ve done a poor job of it…” Donnie turned back to his work, then threw his phone to Leo, “Now, make yourself useful and call Draxum. Tell him about what happened.”

The phone landed in the blue-clad’s palms, and Leo frowned, now truly irritated, “You know what? _No_! I’m not gonna help you!” He threw the phone back to Donnie.

Donatello stopped what he was doing to look at Leo quizzically, “This really isn’t the best time for games, Leo.” He said quietly, returning back to the creature beneath him.

“I’m _not_ playing a game!” Leo yelled, causing Donnie to look up at him again, “I’m just tired of you bringing me down and ordering me around! Admit it, Donnie. You don’t want me with you, do you?” He balled his fist.

“Oh, now _you’re_ mad?” Donnie raised an eyebrow as he said sharply, “I don’t even know why-”

“ANSWER MY QUESTION!” Leo exclaimed in an unusual death tone, startling Donatello.

“YES, YOU’RE RIGHT! I DON’T WANT YOU AROUND! HAPPY?” Donnie spat before he could stop himself.

The ringing of Donnie’s voice didn’t fade right away, and silence was what was lingering afterwards. Leo’s eyes only widened for a second, before they casted downward in some disappointment. No, not at his brother’s words, but at himself.

“Then why didn’t you tell me that anytime sooner?” Leo asked while looking at the ground, clutching on his hurt arm.

“I-I…” Donnie began, but couldn’t continue as he, for the first time, didn’t know what to say.

Leo sighed tiredly after receiving no reply, then turned around, straightened himself, and started ambling towards the door.

“Where are you going?” He heard Donnie ask him in a quiet tone.

“I’m doing what you want. So anywhere but here…” Leo replied without facing his brother.

Donnie stared at his brother’s shell silently, having a mental fight with himself about whether he should stop Leo or not. Because even when Donatello had yelled those words without thinking, he couldn’t a hundred percent confirm that he didn’t mean them. He _did_ want Leo to get off his shell for the moment, because the guy did nothing except mess up and play around today.

The genius suddenly stopped thinking when he heard the door shutting, and saw that his brother was no longer in the same place he was in. Averting his eyes slightly, Donnie was about to get up and chase after his brother, before realizing that he had yet finished with the task he was supposed to be doing. Shaking his head weakly, Donnie frowned and returned his attention to the fallen animals.

‘ _Leo isn’t a kid anymore. He can handle himself._ ’

But even though these words were roaming inside Donatello’s head, he had a strong feeling that things weren’t as simple as he hoped.

And so he began working faster…

**ROTTMNT**

After he finished with the animals, freed them out of the lab, and shut down the entire laboratory system as Draxum had instructed; the genius finally got out of the Hidden City. He was now strolling between the alleyways of New York peacefully, though his heart and mind weren’t as peaceful.

Mikey and Raph were at April’s apartment, redecorating Draxum’s flat that had been a mess since he lived there. Raph only agreed to do this because of Mikey’s whining, and while Donnie would’ve found some enjoyment in redecorating with them, he suddenly found Draxum ordering him to go back to his older hiding place they all knew. Leo immediately suggested to go with him since ‘he’d gone to the Hidden City more than once’ or whatever; and Donnie’s disbelief reached its peak when Raphael agreed on that suggestion.

It wasn’t like the soft-shelled was holding a grudge against his younger twin or anything, but was rather annoyed by his ignorance and mess-ups more than ever. Maybe there was another anonymous reason behind his sudden hatred towards the slider, but Donnie could only think of one at the moment.

Now that he thought about it, his sudden attitude had shown up sometime after their life-or-death match of basketball. But no. No way was he mad because of a ridiculous selfish move from Leo that made Donnie look stupid…. Wasn’t he?

Donnie sighed and quickened his pace automatically. As much as he hated to do this, he _did_ owe his twin brother an apology for getting worked up on him like that without an explanation.

Reaching the lair’s entrance, Donnie immediately remembered that Leo hadn’t precisely said that he was heading home, but rather told him that he was getting as far away as he could from him. What if he was still in the Hidden City? What if he was somewhere else? The soft-shelled hoped that neither of these thoughts were true, because that only meant that he was going to have to search for him; and it was a big chance that Leo’d closed his phone signal to be out of reach.

Regarding this, Donnie made his way into his home, and started looking for his twin brother with his eyes around the TV room. It seemed empty. He turned to the kitchen, no one. Skateboard area, nothing. At that point, Donnie started calling out for him, “Leo? ‘Nardo, are you here?” he questioned, entering Leo’s room.

_grrrrrr hisssss_

The quiet response he got caught Donnie off guard, causing him to freeze in place. His pupils began hurtling around the room, as the strange noises sounded pretty close for the genius’s liking. He wasn’t sure if that was his brother, a mutant who had invaded the lair, or just overall his imagination. Not waiting for a non-brought answer, the turtle in purple secured the tech-bo in his palm, and steadily expanded its length.

“Who’s there?” He asked carefully, narrowing his eyes as he brought the goggles on his face, attempting to find any Yokai or a mystic creature nearby. He didn’t have to, though, because he heard the noises again, now much closer, and much louder.

_HISSSSSSS_

Donatello whipped around, spotting his brother just behind him; on all fours, low on the ground, with a green substance filling his mouth in a disturbing manner. That is, without mentioning his eyes that were completely black, no pupils at all. His stance didn’t go unnoticed by Donnie,

“U-Um, Leo?” Now certain that something was seriously wrong, he started stepping backwards when Leo began creeping closer, his animalistic unfriendly expression seeming to get unfriendlier the more he examined Donnie. “Brother, are you good?” The soft-shelled tried, knowing fully that the other wasn’t going to reply to his question.

More low growls were what he received, alongside the steps Leo insisted to keep up. Donnie was now putting a palm in front of him, trying to calm down his seemingly-enraged-brother, “A-Alright, Leo, something’s not right, and you have to let me fix it…”

Leo didn’t listen, and was still getting closer, much to no one’s surprise. Donnie didn’t get the chance to speak again when he suddenly tripped on something on the ground, causing him to fall on his shell with a grunt. He gasped once Leo suddenly JUMPED on him.

“LEO, WHAT THE-” Donnie struggled as his twin brother was striving to bite while he was on him, and the genius used his tech-bo to block the attacks he received.

“LEO, STOP THIS!” He exclaimed, but his brother continued to attack him roughly, and by now Donnie had to make sure that neither Leo’s teeth nor his claws were getting near him. Growing frustrated, Donnie bent his knees and pushed back up, which led to Leo flying across his room, smashing hardly on the wall. Donnie winced heavily at the sound but didn’t waste any time, propping himself up and escaping from the room. Before Leo could get out and get him, Donnie slammed the door on his face, locking it.

Panting heavily, Donnie stayed beside the door, trying to process what just happened. A bang on the door startled him, and Donnie decided to back away in order to think properly. What was going on?! He couldn’t wrap his head around it, not while hearing those foreign sounds his usual goofy twin brother emitted.

A sudden flash from while he was fighting his brother came to his mind, now realizing that the stab-mark on his arm was still visible, and hadn’t been bandaged or even taken care of. It _had_ to do something with that mutated insect. Donnie swiftly ran to his laboratory while tapping on his wrist-communicator, bringing over his previous research about Parasitic Wasps, and quickly read over it again.

‘ _“Not only can this insect paralyze its prey,”_ ’ Donnie’s eyes travelled across the article, ‘ _“it can also spread its virus and brainwash its mind in order for the host to behave like one of its kind, specifically to protect its new yet-to-hatch off springs”_ ’

The soft-shelled huffed in exasperation, closing his device while cursing himself a thousand times. _Of course_ something like this would happen.

Coming to a halt, Donnie came to an obvious conclusion that he needed to get a sample of the virus in order to invent an antibody; which called for another meeting with his brainwashed brother that Donnie wasn’t exactly looking up for. Still, he had to do this or else they’d be stuck with an unstable angry Leo forever.

Getting out of his lab with the required equipment, the soft-shelled sucked in a breath, before unlocking his brother’s door…

**ROTTMNT**

_“Leo…” The slider could hear the familiar voice that he hated so much, and saw its owner daring to step in his space. He growled without hesitance, sure that this… person… was going to hurt him one way or another._

_“Leo… calm down… I’m gonna do this nice and quick… but I beg you, please no sudden attacks…”_

_Even though the guy’s voice was soft, he wasn’t going to fall for that. For some reason, he was certain that this was a bad person, or a monster that he’d encountered before and lost to. He hissed and growled again, backing away from the careful hand that was reaching him, refusing to accept it._

_“Come on, brother… Let me do this… It’s for your own good.” A soft growl came out of his mouth, but his claws retreated slightly, now hesitant about attacking the threat before him. The guy was now close to him, too close for his liking, but he still stood solid on the ground, not moving; examining the person before him carefully._

_Suddenly, the guy held his wrist roughly, and a pierce on the same place startled him, causing him to scream and strive to bite. He let his guard down! He got tricked on!_

_The same person quickly tied his arms and legs before he could do anything. Now secured, the slider couldn’t move his body in anyway. He struggled, screamed, hissed and growled, trying to break free from the grasp; but in no use. He was suddenly hoisted by the guy, and being moved towards some other room. He didn’t like where this was going. He didn’t like this other turtle. And he was going to make him pay once he was out!_

**ROTTMNT**

Donnie sat a raging Leo, who was sending hate on him with all he got, on the lab floor. He thankfully managed to get a sample of his blood without being shredded, that was a good start. Without a second thought or a moment of hesitance, Donnie began analyzing and studying the virus carefully, while trying to block the dangerous sounds Leo was uttering.

He wasn’t all too proud with what he’d done, Donnie would admit, but he found no other way to convince his brainwashed brother to give him blood other than taking him by surprise. Feeling bad wasn’t a thing the genius ever got used to, and so, he shoved all his feelings down and tried focusing at the task in hand. Great, the antidote serum didn’t require too much work. It only required time.

Occasionally, he would send glances towards Leo, to find him giving him a death stare, or a death growl. Donnie had never seen those looks his twin’s face, ever. Even if he was angry to an extent, Leo had never let his irritation show in a way like this. This could be the first and the last time his mad-self gets exposed to the outside world, because as Leo once had admitted, his jokey manner was a way for him to cope. Without it, Donnie could only picture a very strict, serious Leonardo. Not the best thing the soft-shelled had imagined today, honestly.

_Ding_

The centrifuge rung the small sound, announcing the completion of its task. Donatello swiftly got his syringe gun, sucking a good amount of the antibody, and turning around. He stopped dead in his tracks, wide-eyed, as he saw that no one was there.

The rope was all that was left, and Donnie only uttered a quiet “Oh no…” before getting on high guard and looking all over his lab in a careful manner. Still, with the amount of caution he was in, he didn’t notice the presence of his younger brother behind him, and only did when Leo jumped at him for the second time, causing Donnie to yelp and fall flat on his plastron. He couldn’t get the chance to process what was going on as Leo rolled him around to lie on his shell, and pinned his shoulders down on the ground.

Donnie’s breaths were frantic and panicked, trying to find the syringe gun, to see that it had sled farther from his reach. He cursed mentally, struggling beneath his brother, but Leo kept on a firm hold of his shoulders, and was growling like a crazy dog which its only intention was to shred its prey to pieces.

“Okay, okay, I know that you’re mad, but please let me-” He was cut off when Leo got his claws and buried them just beside Donnie’s head, making the older twin emit a short shriek.

“ ** _YOU TRICKED ME_**!” The demonic voice Leo said his words with caught Donnie by surprise, because he didn’t even know that the slider was able to speak.

“I know, I know!” Donnie said in a hurry, trying to calm down his brother, “But you have to let me help you! You’re not yourself!”

Leo’s tense form and high growls retreated slightly, and Donnie knew that he should keep this up,

“I did wrong. I shouldn’t have left you alone this whole time. I shouldn’t have attacked you when you were not expecting that…” He admitted quietly, seeing Leo relax completely with wide, shocked black eyes.

Donnie silently took the opportunity; and while locking his gaze with his twin, he managed to get a grip of the syringe gun as he talked,

“And I’m sorry for repeating the process again…” Just as he muttered, he dug the antidote inside Leo’s neck, earning a very loud scream from him. Donnie could only watch as his brother shrieked, because he couldn’t move with Leo holding his shoulders roughly. The soft-shelled gasped suddenly when Leo managed to bite his upper-arm with all he got. When blood trickled down his arm, Donnie panicked. And while Leo finally settled down and fainted on the ground, Donnie quickly shot himself with whatever that was left in the syringe. A few moments later, Donnie also gave out, and fell unconscious.

…

“NNggh…” Leo moaned in discomfort, opening his eyes slightly as his vision danced before him. He held himself up with one arm, attempting to sit on the ground, and the other hand held his head. He grimaced slightly, then paused, his eyes widening as he gasped, then turned to the body next to him,

“No…” Was all he whispered, before making his way towards Donatello and sitting on his knees beside him. His eyes examined his older twin frantically. He looked worn out and the bite he left on him was still bleeding.

“No…” Leo whispered again, now more desperately, “Donnie? Donnie! Talk to me!” He shook Donnie’s shoulder lightly. When he got no response, Leo began to be filled with fear. “Oh my God, what have I done?!” The worst came to the slider’s mind, thinking that the bite had infected his brother or somehow had killed him. “DONNIE!” He yelled again, shaking the other’s shoulder a bit rougher, tears welling in his eyes as he, yet again, was answered with silence.

Leo hiccupped slightly, and closed his eyes. This was all his fault! He shouldn’t have pushed the damn button in the first place! Now, Donnie was dead and-

“Ow… what…?” The weak voice of the soft-shelled shocked the slider, and he blinked as his brother got up and sat, while holding a hand on his head, just like Leo did earlier.

“DONNIE, YOU’RE ALIVE!” Leo voiced happily, but didn’t do anything else.

Donatello got alarmed by the sudden shout, and looked to his brother to see no black eyes anymore. Donnie breathed inwardly in relief. He’d made it.

Bringing on his usual tone and expression, Donnie spoke while inspecting his wound, “Well, yes, I am. Why would you think other… wise…?” He trailed once his eyes met his brother’s face, to see how upset it was, plus the slight tears that were trickling down on it.

“Hey, were you crying?” Donnie asked, his tone skeptical more than it is concerned.

“No.” Leo obviously lied, wiping down his face and standing up, “Sorry. I’m gonna leave you alone now…” He strolled out of the lab.

Donnie sat silently in slight surprise, until he decided to treat the injury rapidly before going after Leo. Thereafter cleaning and bandaging the bite-mark, he ambled in a quick pace out of the laboratory and down the hall. His feet screeched as he came into a quick stop when he looked inside Leo’s room, seeing its owner sitting cross-legged on his mattress, shell facing the door.

The genius paused before taking small steps inside, looking around and just now realizing how messy the room had become after the earlier attacks. As he approached, Donnie took notice of how Leo was tilting his head away from his sight. Even when Donnie was now beside the bed, Leo moved his body and attempted to make his shell face him, refusing to look at him while hugging himself.

“What are you doing here?” Leo asked a bit coldly once Donnie sat cross-legged on the floor just behind his brother.

“Um. To talk?” Donnie answered in a fake voice.

“No. You’re just here to make fun of me. And I’m not really in the mood to hear it.” Leo answered in certainty, turning his face side-ways to shoot a look towards his brother, “I don’t wanna hear how bad I did in the mission or how it was all my fault. I don’t wanna hear how I’m the worst brother ever or how I somehow mess up in the dumbest ways possible. I’m just… tired of it, alright?” He finished, looking ahead of him again.

The genius paused and gaped, trying to find the suitable words for what he’d just heard. He didn’t comprehend how Leo came up with that belief, that Donnie was just here to dishearten him. Or maybe Donnie did this way too much that Leo just… kind of expected this to be the only thing that would happen. Which made Donnie feel slightly worse…

However, the words he said totally changed his whole point, “Well, technically, it _was_ your fault that you got stung and it _is_ true that you did bad in the miss-” He stopped when he noticed how tense his brother had become due to anger. ‘ _Dammit!_ ’ He cursed to himself. Donnie knew that he was bad at this, but didn’t expect to be _this bad_.

His thoughts were interrupted when he didn’t miss a quiet murmur his brother uttered.

“What was that?” Donnie asked in irritated suspicious.

“I _said_ , I don’t believe that Mikey likes to hang out with you.” Leo expressed between gritted teeth, still not facing his brother, “You’re just mean. And Mikey doesn’t like mean people.”

Donnie thought this through, before averting his eye slightly, “Well, I have to admit that I don’t treat Michael that way… Or Raph…” He said quietly.

“Then why _me_?!” Leo finally spun to fully face his brother, his eyes wide and looking for answers, “What did I ever do to you?! Is it about the time where I took out the wrong baby tooth of yours?! Then, I’m sorry! Or because of that basketball match where I took the final shot?! Then, double sorry! Or is it something else that I don’t remember?! I wanna _know it_ , Donnie!”

Donnie’s mind went blank for a second, trying to find an answer for this important question, to come out with none. Stuttering slightly, Donnie replied, “I-I don’t know… you just annoy me…” He said, not eying Leo.

Leonardo retreated slightly with a broken expression. Turning around again to his original posture, Leo muttered with his shell facing his brother, “Well, thank you so much…”

Donnie sat there, trying to find something to say, but what could he say? The tension in the room was deadly and could be felt within a mile. The silence was aching and for a moment the genius contemplated about getting out of the room; until he heard it,

_Sob_

Donnie’s eyes widen at the noise, ‘ _Oh, Great. You did it again…_ ’ He thought in misery. Donnie had always had a habit of making his younger brothers cry. It was a really really bad habit and Donnie absolutely hated it; because not only was he the only one who could fix the situation, he also hated to see his younger brothers’ faces so sad and disappointed, although he would never admit that.

Mikey may be easy to deal with, but Leo had rarely ever cried in front of anyone, which made the situation even more awkward.

But that didn’t mean that Donnie wasn’t going to try and make him feel better; no matter how awkward that was going to be…

Getting up, Donnie sat on the mattress, resting his battle-shell on the wall. Leo’s reaction was only a head twist, without actually turning his body.

“Leo, you know more than I do how I terrible am at speaking my mind; that’s why I tend to hide my emotions most of the time. But I never came here to ridicule you… And I don’t hate you, brother… At least not without a reason…”

Leo was wiping his eyes continuously, and at the end of Donnie’s statement, Leo turned to him in a questioning stare.

The genius continued, “Perhaps… perhaps I just envy you…” Donnie, for the first time in a long while was speaking from his heart, “Maybe I’m jealous because I’m not like you in sports, communication, or tricking people into getting what I want without too much effort… Maybe I’m jealous because I don’t have a strong bond with Raph, Mikey and father like you do.” He sighed, shifting his position for one knee to bend up, and his arm to rest on it, “Maybe I know I’m terrible, that’s why I try so hard to hide that fact, which makes me even more terrible…” He paused, “And I’ll admit, I myself don’t even know why Mikey enjoys my company…” He finished.

Leo’s eyes travelled along Donnie’s face. Rare was it to witness Donnie in a state where he isn’t praising himself, but doing the opposite. The slider’s eyes fell to be looking at the mattress, then talked,

“I understand, Donnie…” Was all Leo replied with.

“You do?” Donnie questioned before he could stop himself, giving an eye ridge.

Leo nodded sadly, “Can’t say I don’t feel that everyday…” He admitted quietly, his gaze stuck to his legs.

Donnie stared at his brother sorrowfully, before remembering a statement Mikey told him some days ago…

‘ _“Hug it out!”_ ’

The genius gave up with a small smile, then muttered, “Alright, come here you…” He opened his arms hesitantly while standing on his knees, earning a shocked stare from Leo. Donnie’s face fell slightly, “You better be quick or I’m gonna change my mind.” He warned.

Upon hearing this, Leo skeptically walked on his knees, and bumped his head hopelessly on Donnie’s plastron. The soft-shelled wrapped his arms around his twin, and the younger did the same, crying silently as they both rested and sat on their knees.

Donnie listened as his brother sniffed and sobbed, and muttered a quiet, “I’m sorry…” To his twin brother. In the corner of his eye, Donnie noticed a movement outside the room, and spotted the oldest and the youngest staring at him quizzically from there. Donnie made some movements with one hand that read:

_Emotional Problem!_

Raph and Mikey made a face of “Ooooh…”, then entered and they both joined the hug. Leo was only surprised for a second before smelling the strong scent of paint, and relaxed. Soon enough, they were all cuddling down on Leo’s mattress, asleep.

The twin’s attitude towards each other never changed that much after the incident, and each of them were glad they weren’t. Donnie just lessened with his unnecessarily harsh comments, and Leo attempted to focus more on his tasks. Other than that, it was normal.

Mikey and Raph were still oblivious to what happened, even after three days, but Leo and Donnie were determined to zip their mouths shut. I mean, how could they explain that Leo turned to a Parasitic Wasp and attempted to kill Donnie? They couldn’t. So, the moment was kept a secret, and was going to stay that way.

Well, maybe the situation didn’t turn out or end in the best way possible, yet again, what was new? Getting into fights with his twin wasn't Leonardo's favorite thing to do...

But the slider knew that they were never enough tear them apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I’m satisfied with the ending, but here you go. Obvious reference is obvious, of course! XD
> 
> Don’t forget to check out ‘[Fearless](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24525664/chapters/59214208)’ as Leo’s original moment! Hope you get all the love and affection in this hard time… <33


	5. April's Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> April feels down after getting in a fight with her bestfriend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the Loud House episode: “Brawl in the Family”

“Come on, Apes. You can’t tell us that something isn’t wrong…”

“Yeah, April. I’ve never seen you like this before. What happened?”

“No one makes our best friend upset and gets away with it!”

“You know it’s dangerous when even _Raph_ notices one’s distress…”

April stopped walking behind at the sudden series of questions she received, and sighed while rubbing on her arm, her shoulders falling down as she didn’t eye them, “It’s nothing, guys…”

“No, it is _not_ nothing!” The turtle in blue exclaimed in an dramatic manner, “You tell us what’s wrong with you _right now_ or else…” He paused, his form dropping slightly, “uhh… or else… uhhhmmm…”

“Or else we’ll try and figure that out o’selves!” Raph spoke instead of his brother.

“What he said!” Leo’s spirit rose once again with a frown.

“Yeah!” Mikey wailed in confirmation.

“Better spill the beans now or you _know_ how that’s going to end…” Donnie said while crossing his arms.

April’s features changed into one of desperation, as if silently begging them to drop the subject. But knowing these guys, they weren’t going to give up that easily. Feeling defeated, April sighed and turned around, deciding to sit on a big brick that was placed on the roof. The turtles were in front of her once she made herself comfortable; planting one elbow on her lap and resting her cheek on her palm.

“I got into a fight with Sunita…” She started.

The guys gasped and their eyes widened, exchanging looks with each other, then turning to April.

“ _Sunita?_ The sweet loving girl who doesn’t allow herself to fight a bug?!” Donnie exclaimed, as if he had heard wrong and wanted to make sure.

Donnie was responded with a reluctant nod.

“But… you guys are best friends!” Mikey cried out, “You spend most of your time doing things together! Like going to malls, watching movies, fighting bad guys, stargazing, eating pizza-”

“I get it, Mikey…” April muttered quietly.

Mikey silenced with a sad expression.

“How did that happen?” Raph asked afterwards.

“I…” April sighed in frustration, “I don’t know… the situation just… escalated too quickly…” She motioned with her hand in a circular motion, “We disagreed on something which I don’t remember anymore, she yelled, I yelled, then I shoved, then she walked away, I screamed at her, calling her a freak, and she-”

“Woah, woah, WOAH!” Mikey interrupted with his palms swinging back and forth, “You called her… A _FREAK_?!” He exclaimed while pointing.

April nodded again, her eyes casting down.

“You know how much that hurts, April?” Leo asked in a quiet tone.

“Even by my standards, that is _harsh_ …” Donnie said.

“Well… she didn’t let me get away with it…” April shrugged with a wince, “She screamed back, saying that _I’m_ the one who chose to befriend a freak…”

“Well at least she didn’t call you a contemptible member of the human race…” Donnie mumbled.

“DONNIE!” The other turtles yelled in irritation.

“What?” The genius stated in defense, “I cannot be the only one who finds what she said unforgivable…”

April frowned slightly and lowered her head, as the brief silence broke by Raph’s sigh,

“Don’t mind Don, April, he has no clue ‘bout what he’s sayin’-”

“That has never happened before and you know it!” Donnie exclaimed, to be held back by Leo and Mikey; and to also be ignored by the leader,

“-But I can’t entirely disagree with ‘im…” Raph stepped in order to be in front of his bickering brothers, causing April to look up at him, “We’ve had our experience by bein’ called freaks or monsters before… And it took us long to cope with the fact that we’re different…” He paused, looking back at the youngsters who were not paying the least attention to the conversation, “Donnie and Mikey took the longest…”

April’s feature saddened slightly, tilting her head to be able to take a glimpse at the ball of smoke the three formed while fighting each other. She returned her attention to Raph, seeing as though some memory came to his mind before shaking his head slightly, looking back at her,

“Anyway. What are ya gonna do now?”

April let out a breath, “I dunno. Let the situation run its course, I suppose?” She shrugged skeptically.

“ _‘Run its course’_?!” Leo joined the conversation, “That’s it?”

“Yes.” April said as she stood up, dusting herself. Trying to ignore the shocked eyes while she walked past them, April suddenly turned around while pointing, “And you _better_ not involve yourselves into this.” She warned, then turned around, taking down the fire-escape staircase.

“Yeah, yeah, sure!” Raph called out in reassurance.

Right after April disappeared, Leo looked up to the oldest, “We’re butting in, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, we’re butting in.” Raph mumbled along Leo’s line.

**ROTTMNT**

April sighed while stirring her coffee slowly, not really in the mood to drink it. Her thoughts kept wandering back and forth, making her feel worse. What was she doing here, anyway, in the place where she and Sunita always ate pizza in? She should be home, doing her work, or at least eating some dinner; not look like a sad, damp broccoli with her hair messy like that. But she didn’t care. She preferred sitting here. At least she wouldn’t be forced to explain what happened to anyone-

_“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”_

April’s head shot up at the high-pitched screech, getting up once everybody started fleeing from the restaurant. She grabbed her bat and went further inside, to find an enormous… thing… with a hat and a huge coat covering its body. The form of the monster was wobbly and not stable, and before April could question it, the creature announced,

“Greetings!” It said in an eerily familiar voice, holding up its hands, “It is I, the pizza monster, coming to take all your pizza!”

** Inside the coat: **

Leo: You sure this will work?

Mikey: (On top) Trust me, they like fighting with each other, I’m positive they’re gonna hug it out while working together!

Raph: (the base) I’m not sure if I’m gonna be able to hold for too long!

Donnie: Why did I agree on this?

** Back outside: **

April’s defense stance retreated slightly, her eyebrow rising, “Hey… you kinda sound like-”

“AHEM! ERM, no!” The monster cut out while coughing, deepening his voice, “Now, I hope you hand me all the pizza, before someone I definitely don’t know barges in and-”

A faint yell that was getting louder made April and the monster pause and turn to the door. The excited yell’s owner was getting close and once the door burst open, the Indian teenager exclaimed,

“SUNITA IS IN THE HOU-” She stopped, gasping, “ _APRIL_?!”

April gasped as well, “SUNITA?!” With the monster forgotten, she lowered her bat to turn herself, “What are you doing here?!”

Sunita frowned, “What are _you_ doing here?!”

April returned the frown, “You answer!”

“Uhhh, bad guy here?” The creature announced, to be ignored.

“I got a call from an unknown number telling me that there’s a villain here!” Sunita exclaimed before pausing, “Was that _you_?!”

“No!” April stated in offence, “Why would I ever do that?!”

“You’re right. It’s not like you need to apologize or anything…” Sunita said while crossing her arms.

“ _I_ need to apologize?” April exclaimed in disbelief, “You started the whole thing!”

“ _I_ started?!” Sunita copied April’s tone, “You’re the one who called me names first!”

“Girls, girls!” The wobbly creature interrupted, causing both April and Sunita to look up at him with flaming eyes,

“STAY OUT OF THIS!” The girls growled simultaneously.

The monster raised both of his palms, “Alright, never mind…”

Sunita turned to her ex-friend again, “I’m getting out of here!” She began walking towards the entrance.

“That’s the best thing you can do!” April yelled in rage, crossing her arms. She spun for her back to face Sunita, and the said ex-friend did the same while stomping out of the restaurant.

April’s shoulders fell once she heard the door oscillating heavily, turning her body halfway to stare at the swinging door somewhat sadly. Her head suddenly shot up as she turned around again, to find that the monster had disappeared. Head hanging, the teen put a wrist on her forehead, her voice grieving as she talked,

“Oh, man… You failed again…”

“April, what happened?!” April darted her sight upwards to find her four male friends approaching, worried expressions on their faces. The worried faces were too obvious, though, as if it was an act; but April was focused into wiping her single tear to care.

“What brought you here?” She asked, not answering Leo’s question.

“We heard some screams and decided to check ‘em out…” Raph explained, looking around, “Seems like we’re too late…”

“Yeah…” Was the only reply April could manage, heading slowly for the door, “Too late…”

As the door swung, April fought with the urge of turning around and tell the guys what happened, but she knew she shouldn’t involve them in this. They shouldn’t involve themselves. The issue must be resolved without the help of anyone, otherwise it might turn worse.

Little did she know, the guys immediately started coming up with another plan while she strolled in the streets.

**ROTTMNT**

April was rolling in her bed, trying to find a comfortable position while she was playing on her phone. The game wasn’t too fun, though, and April then decided to investigate social medias for a bit. While scrolling on her feed, the phone suddenly buzzed…

April eyebrow raised as the notification popped, announcing that a new message was received from…

‘ _Sunita?_ ’ She thought skeptically, brows furrowing as she hesitated to open it, but as the third buzz rang, April gave up and clicked on the message.

It read:

_~Hey April!_

_~I wanna say I’m super sorry for what I did, and I’m hoping to make it up for you!_

_~Meet me at Central Park 10:30! Love you! <3_

April’s frown deepened, sensing something off about this. Her ex-friend wasn’t the type to suddenly and/or easily give up. Though April would give her credit for sweetness and the ability of being magnanimous, coming to terms with the situation this quickly was kinda off. But April looked up at the clock, anyway.

10:00, good, she has plenty of time to get ready. If this was a scheme, then April wasn’t certain if she would like to look at Sunita’s face ever again. It better be what it sounded like.

Twenty minutes passed slowly, and the remaining ten passed slower, since she was now in the place where the meeting was. She wasn’t sure _where_ in Central Park should she stay in, and so, she didn’t mind taking a slow stroll in there. The place was nice and refreshing, and the quiet chilling breeze was enough to make her forget about all of her problems for a while.

The moment was halted when her phone buzzed again, and the text read:

_~Go to the center of the park. You know the place!_

The teen pocketed her phone and began ambling towards the intended location. As soon as she made a peek at the free space of grass that was shaped like a circle, she stopped. There, was a table with two chairs, flowers all around and twinkle lights wrapped around the table and chairs. Yet, no one was there. She looked around, having a feeling that Sunita would suddenly jump at her and scare the hell out of her like she always does, but nothing showed up. Slowly, she approached the table, and took a seat, her eyes still travelling all over the place in order to assure herself that she was safe.

** Behind a nearby bush: **

Donnie: This isn’t going to work.

Leo: Ugh, c’mon, dude. Just give it a shot.

Raph: I too got a bad feeling about this.

Mikey: Would you all Shhh? She’s right there!

** Back outside: **

After a moment of uncomfortableness, the teen heard a rumble in the bush, and once she found the Indian girl out, she let out a breath of relief. Looking up at her, Sunita herself seemed to be surprised about the table set, but April let it pass as Sunita whispered with an awkward smile,

“Hey…” She waved a hand.

“Hey…” April turned the greeting, the awkwardness mutual.

Sunita walked funnily as she took a seat herself, to be opposite of April. She took a quick peak around the place, before taking out her cloaking-broach, for her Yokai form to appear.

“So, uh…” April started, “Nice place…” She stated with a smirk.

“Yeah…” Sunita said with a similar smile, “I like it…”

A moment of silence passed, and April was now feeling the importance of settling things,

“Hey, I…” She said and she fiddled with a flower, too scared to look up, “I appreciate how you made the first move… y’know, about apologizing and all? I admit I was too stubborn… or too scared to say sorry, so, I’m-”

“WOAH WOAH WOAH!” Sunita interrupted, causing a startled April to look up at her, “Excuse me, what? Am I trippin’ here? You apologized first!” She exclaimed in confusion rather than accusation.

** Behind a nearby bush: **

Raph: *quietly* Oh no…

Leo: Frick, we’re busted!

Donnie: Disengage, I repeat, disengage!

*turtles get up and run*

** Back outside: **

April paused and her face flushed slightly, either because of embarrassment or anger, but regained herself, “W-What are you saying?” Shakily taking out her phone, April opened the messages and shoved the phone to Sunita, “Then who is that?!”

Sunita read over, her yellow eyes widening, “I received the exact same message at the same time!” She took out her own device, “See for yourself!”

April snatched the phone from the Yokai. Sunita was right. Everything was the same except for the first message which contained ‘Hey, Sunita!’ instead of ‘Hey, April!’, “H-How…?” She whispered, her confusion beyond describable.

“Yeah, how?!” Sunita followed in panicking just like April, “I mean, who would do this? O-Or how would they do this? It takes a genius to hack devices and-”

April’s head shot up, “Donnie…” She whispered to herself, anger rising as she put Sunita’s phone on the table, got her own phone and began stomping towards a specific direction.

“H-Hey, where are you going?” She could hear the concerned voice of Sunita call, and she turned her head halfway with a death glare,

“To rip some turtles out of their shells…”

**ROTTMNT**

“HOW COULD YOU?!” Was April’s first scream as she stepped in the lair, causing all the turtles to stop whatever they were ‘doing’ and eye her. Leo and Mikey were the closest and so they were the ones who first approached,

“W-What do you mean, Apes?” Leo asked in an uncertain chuckle, which April immediately saw through.

“DON’T PLAY WITH ME!” At that point, Raph and Donnie were also in front of her, “I TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT OF THIS! THAT’S LETIRALLY THE ONLY THING I ASKED FROM YOU!”

Raph stepped while putting his palms in front of him, “April, please calm-”

“NO! I’M NOT CALMING DOWN!” She screamed.

“Did you just want us to stay and do nothing while you’re like this?” Mikey exclaimed in annoyance.

“YES!” April yelled at the youngest, “THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED! I KNEW YOU’LL SCREW UP MORE THAN YOU’LL FIX IT! WHY DON’T YOU JUST TRUST ME?!”

“We trust you, April. We just wanted to bring you back together, so we made plans and-” Leo said, trying to approach, but to shrink when April’s head shot up in realization, and yelled,

“Y-You were also the ones who set up the whole _PIZZA MONSTER_?!”

“Well, yes we-” Donnie said, before stopping once seeing the tear in April’s betrayed face.

The boys stood in horror as they watched their only human friend eye them, then lowered her head as she spoke,

“I told you not to do one thing… one thing… and you didn’t even think twice before doing it…” She said slowly, her voice cracking.

Donnie reached a hand, “April-”

“WHO AM I SUPPOSED TO TRUST ANYMORE?!” The teen suddenly screeched as she looked up at the startled males, tears rolling down, before running out of the lair through the tunnels.

“APRIL!” Raph screamed as he and the others ran after the teen, but stopped halfway while watching her flee.

“W-We screwed up, guys…” Leo said in disappointment, hanging his head low.

“Big time…” Raph said, copying Leo’s act.

“That was an awful move we made right there…” Donnie said, still staring at the way April went through.

The turtles’ heads shot up once they saw Mikey starting to run again.

“Mikey?” Donnie asked before the youngest went too far.

“What? Are we just gonna stand here and do nothing?” Mikey said once he turned his head, “April lost her best friend, guys! We’re not letting her think that she lost us too. COME ON!” He exclaimed before sprinting.

Exchanging gapes, the elder turtles nodded before following their baby brother.

April sat down while hugging her legs, too tired to continue running as she sobbed. This has got to be the worst day ever. Was she really a joke? Did no one take her seriously? Why did the ones whom she trusted with her heart and soul hurt her that way? What did she do to deserve this? Was she all alone now? She really had no one else except for her friends. The fact that they were all gone shattered her heart, and she sobbed harder.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps, and lifted her head to find the four turtles in front of her. She lowered her head again instantly while talking,

“Go away…” She said in a rasp, cracked voice.

“No. We. Won’t...” Came Raph’s reply as she sensed them sitting around her. Curling herself a little tighter, she spoke while staring at her stomach,

“Am I terrible, guys?” She asked.

“No, April, you’re not…” Donnie was the one to answer, his voice containing sadness.

“You are the best human friend ever!” Mikey spoke in enthusiasm.

“The best human ever!” Leo said.

“We did bad, April. We really did.” Raph’s voice came again, having a hint of disappointment in it, “And we have no excuse. We’re really sorry…”

“Yeah…” Mikey said, scratching the back of his neck, “We just hated seeing you upset, so we came up with dumb ideas without thinking about the aftermath…”

“They were all Donnie’s ideas…” Leo taunted with a smile.

“Hey!” Donnie said while frowning at his twin.

By the end of the second statement, April had lifted her head, and even chuckled a few times at her friends’ stupid actions. Wiping some tears, April’s head shot up once she heard the announce from Leo,

“GROUP HUG!”

As soon as the sentence was said, arms were wrapped around her in a comforting embrace. She nuzzled her noddle slightly between their arms, whispering,

“Thanks, guys…”

Instead of replying with a ‘you’re welcome’, Mikey stated in a guilty tone, “We’re sorry…”

“We truly are…” Donnie said in approval.

“And from now on, we won’t involve ourselves in this…” Leo said, “Not unless you want to… So, what do you say?” He smiled.

April smiled back, the expression then turning smug, “You know? I think I’ll set up another meeting in Central Park tomorrow with her. The place you put was super nice!”

“Of course, the artist of the family takes credit!” Mikey was the one to say proudly.

“Hey, not all the credit! The flowers was my idea!” Leo said.

“Without my impressive technical skills, none of this would have worked, dummies!” Donnie joined in, smirking.

Laughs echoed through the tunnels, before April suggested that she should go. The guys said goodbye and wished her good luck with the meeting tomorrow.

But rather than taking the route home, April instead headed for the hills in the edge of the city. For no apparent reason, actually. The place had always calmed her down. As well as it had an amazing view of the stars.

Reaching the top of the hill, April took a seat on the dry grass, cross-legged. Her smile automatically showed the moment she looked up, because the sky was very beautiful tonight. Countless stars filled it like beautiful diamonds shining inside a dull dark cave. The clouds were lightly beaming due to the moon’s light. Warmth ran through the 16-year-old, even though the breeze was chilly and enough to make her shiver under her jacket; but she didn’t care. A deep breath made its way inside her lungs, and she contently let it out, a foreign relief making her wish this moment could last forever.

April didn’t know why she did this, but she took a quick peek beside her then back again, before she froze. Her eyes widened as she fully turned her head, to confirm her suspicious.

There, far away, was her ex-friend, in Yokai form, hugging her legs and resting her chin on her knees, a gloomy expression on her face. April kept staring at the scene for a long while. Right, this used to be the place where they watched the scenery of stars together. But, Sunita wasn’t even watching any stars. If anything, it almost looked as if she was…

…crying.

April’s feature twisted in one of sorrow and hesitance, wondering if she should go and accompany her or not. They haven’t really spoken with each other in that fake meeting; and haven’t exactly left on good terms. She haven’t even explained that this was all a set-up, thanks to her rage-issues. Should she go and talk it out now, or should she wait for tomorrow…?

Eh, why waste the opportunity now?

Getting up, and heading for the empty space beside Sunita; April made her best to make some noise in order not to surprise the Yokai once she’s beside her. When she was close enough, Sunita finally whipped her head with wide eyes and looked up at her; startled despite what April has done. April noticed her wiping a few green tears off her gooey face, before concentrating at her again.

“Hey…” April started, sensing a wave of deja-vu hitting her.

“H-Hey…” Sunita timidly answered, their eyes meeting each other.

“You mind if I take a seat?” April spoke smugly while putting a hand on her hip.

A small smile crossed the Yokai’s face, “Not at all…”

April sat down, with her legs straight, looking up at the stars in content. She peeked at Sunita to find her head was still down.

“You know? You’re missin’ a beautiful scene, there…” April stated softly.

Sunita only eyed her in confusion before glancing up; and it took a little time until a –literal- soft smile crossed her lips, “You’re right. It _is_ beautiful…”

Moments of silence passed. Comfortable silence, as the two watched the night sky in awe. Two shooting stars appeared and went, which made the duo smile harder. A murmur came out of April’s mouth without thinking,

“I’m sorry…”

Sunita side-glanced her, “I’m sorry, too…” She paused, fully turning her head, “Do you even remember what started this?”

“Not a clue…” April grinned widely, which Sunita returned. Her smile fell as she continued, “Either way, I’m sure it wasn’t worth calling you a freak. So, I’m sorry…”

“And I shouldn’t have lashed out on you at the restaurant…” Sunita admitted, “Man, today was just…” she trailed.

“…a crappy day.” April continued, knowing that Sunita wasn’t the type to say bad words.

Sunita turned to her in surprise for a second, before her feature softened. She leaned slightly, for her head to rest on April’s shoulder. April didn’t mind and rested her own head on Sunita’s green hair.

“I’m glad to have you as a friend…” Sunita said, staring upwards.

“Me too…” April answered, wrapping her arm around Sunita’s back. Sunita wrapped her own gooey arm, enjoying the night sky with her best friend.

Yes, today wasn’t the best of the bunch, but at least things worked out at the end. April would say that it was weird how they did, without the help of anyone, without set-ups or master plans. April wasn’t sure how she would explain to the guys, really. That it was too easy and non-complicated unlike they thought. They wouldn’t believe her if she told them that they made out simply because of watching some stars. They would probably ask ‘how come…?’.

‘ _Well, it’s a girls’ thing…_ ’ She thought as a smile crossed her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imagining a sweet character who has never become upset in the show as an angry chicken nugget is really hard. I hope I captured Sunita well enough for this one. ^^’


	6. Splinter's Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Splinter had never known the true meaning of love, until he’d decided to raise these turtles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know what happened, but when I was halfway through the chapter the new episodes came out and… Splinter’s plot in “The Hidden City’s Most Wanted” was the same one I was going to write about? 0_0 Like, him finally accepting his form and everything? Man, I wish I could have finished this sooner. But hey, at least I finished it. Enjoy another turn of Splinter realizing that his mutation wasn’t the worst thing that happened in his life like he assumes!
> 
> \--------------------------------------
> 
> First bit is with the turtle tots, second bit is with the normal teenage boys!

Love. Is a word that can hold more than one meaning. It can be platonic, it can be sensual. It can describe a feeling towards a family member, or a partner. Basically a powerful word with a vivid effect.

Unfortunately, Lou Jitsu had never been in a true loving relationship.

Lou Jitsu was an action star with lots of movies and fans, yes, but never once did anyone desire to know about his personal life. No one shared his experiences. No one was interested enough to know what he liked, and what he didn’t like…

Big Mama was the first person that made him feel complete, but it all turned out as a lie. A lie he was oblivious to. The moment she revealed her true form was the most heart-rending situation he was put in in his life. Because not only did she wait till he proposed to her, she also kidnapped him and forced him to fight in the Battle Nexus against his own will; watching him from a spot that he’d always tried not to lay his eyes on. His time there wasn’t the best of the bunch, and he had practically lost all hope in trying to escape, as well as trying to fight. He let himself lose in one match and that was it. He remained in his cell, eating poorly, a rat was his only friend. The mighty worrier accepted his fate. This was how he was going to die, rotting in a prison that his former lover designed for him…

But it all changed one day…

A day, that was cursed by all measures. Getting kidnapped again, becoming a father, and turning into a rat all in the same day. It was like a destiny he was forced to take. But at least he escaped from that sickening world that was called ‘The Hidden City’ and returned back to his home, in New York, where _normal humans_ were there. Except, he wasn’t a human anymore, and had four turtles that contained his DNA to take care of.

But now that Lou Jitsu thought about it… Had this day really _been_ cursed?

* * *

“Bluuue… I do not like where this is goiiiing…” Splinter said with a bandana in front of his eyes, trying to blindly follow the arm that was dragging his own.

“Shhh, pappa! You’re gonna ruin this with you _un_ coolness!” Whined a six-year-old Leonardo, making Splinter chuckle quietly. What was his sons up to?

“Now stop!” Leonardo ordered as he let his hand go, and Splinter obeyed, trying to mask his excitement by crossing his arms, and tapping his foot in fake annoyance. He could hear silent snickers and chuckles with his sensitive ears,

“Can I see noooow?” He asked in a teasing tone, lifting his hand as he was about to peek.

“NO!” Yelled out his four sons, which caused him to give a sheepish chuckle and lower his arm.

Two seconds passed until Purple announced, “Okay, now you can look!”

Splinter wasted no time, and got the blindfold off his face, for his form to slacken and his eyes to widen slightly in amazement.

“HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!” The four turtles exclaimed excitingly, while Leonardo and Donatello both fired the confetti bombs on each side. The TV room was full of balloons with heart shapes, as well as letters that read ‘Best Dad’. Many questions came to the elder’s mind, and to make things even more confusing, Raphael approached him and handed him a foreign coffee mug that was filled with coffee, reading out ‘World’s Greatest Dad’, while Michelangelo held a plate with a small cookie that had icing in a shape of a smiling face, with a card on the same plate.

“This is for you, dad!” Both baby turtles happily said, shoving the gifts in the confused rat’s hands.

The boys immediately backed with expectant expressions and huge smiles, and silence fell on the lair as Yoshi held the card to read what was written:

_Deer dad,  
You are the best and coolest rat man in the world!  
Dony loves you  
Raf loves you  
Leo loves you  
And I love you!  
~Mikey_

“Do you like it?” Leonardo asked as soon as Splinter finished with the note. The mutated star tore his gaze off of it and put the mug and the plate on a nearby table. Returning back to his place, Yoshi closed his eyes and put his hands behind his back,

“My sons…”

The four’s smiles widened as they approached.

“…HAVE YOU GONE TOPSIDE ON YOUR OWN?!” Splinter yelled with a furious expression and his hair standing up, scaring off his sons. Donnie, Mikey and Leo hid behind Raphael who opened his arms protectively.

“IT WAS DONNIE’S IDEA! PUNISH HIM!” Blue accused a finger towards his brother.

Donatello stayed quiet yet shot an angry look to Leonardo.

“We wanted to make you happy!” Mikey wailed in defense as tears began to form in his eyes.

“We just went for a little while, Pops!” Raphael stated, his form still tense in front of his siblings

Upon the scene, Lou’s form deflated slightly, feeling bad for lashing out on them. Pinching his nose-bridge, the father sighed,

“ _How_ did you even know that today is father’s day…?” He questioned in a bit of aggressiveness, mad over the fact that his sons disobeyed his orders.

“The TV told us!” Leonardo exclaimed.

“My data points also confirmed it!” Donatello followed along.

“Donnie figured a way to order stuff online, so we did.” Red explained, “We just needed to go get them.”

“Yeah, we didn’t leave the sewers!” Orange said, peeking from behind the oldest turtle.

Splinter was about to scold them once more, but the scared eyes he received shoved that idea. He sighed again, tiredly, as this was the second time his sons go out on their own. They were oblivious to what they might face, what dangers are out there, and it was Splinter’s job to look out for them. The amount of hatred and cruelty he faced when he first got to New York after his mutation was sickening. People were not very understanding or accepting of the ideas of ‘monsters’ running around. The last thing Yoshi wanted was for his sons to get experimented on.

Yet, the gesture was nice, and their hearts were in the right place. And since they came back safe and well, he could point these things out another time…

“Alright, my boys…” Splinter opened his eyes to look softly towards the turtles, “…I forgive you this once, just because you meant well…” A smile crept to his face when he saw the tots peeking from behind Red in interest, “Now, let’s see what we have here…” He took the cookie plate and mug, then sat down cross-legged on the rug. A few seconds later and his sons were all over him, smiling in content as Splinter started to affirm exaggeratingly how amazing these gifts were, and also tell them one of his ancestor’s tales until they all fell asleep, using him as a big pillow.

Lou Jitsu then opened the card, and started to wonder again…

**ROTTMNT**

Splinter exhaled while stirring the soup, giving it a final pinch of salt before pouring it in separate bowls. Placing the bowls on a big tray, the rat man began to head towards the TV room, attempting to perfect the balance in order to prevent the soup from staining the tray.

Eyes landed on him once he stepped inside. Tired ones, to be exact. Splinter didn’t know what was it between his sons and getting sick, but when one of them gets the flu, the others follow instantly. Maybe a part of it was because they never leave the sick turtle’s side, or maybe it was just the ooze making them having connective instincts. Either way, it doesn’t debunk the fact that it gets bad. Sometimes, _really_ bad. To the point where they remain asleep in their cuddlefest for days. Yoshi always makes sure it does not get to that point.

“I made soup…” Splinter announced with a sympathetic smile, landing the tray on the floor, where his sons were currently resting on with their backs against the bottom of the couch, a huge blanket wrapped around all of them. Mostly it was Red who was sitting, the others were either leaning on or on top of him, which Raphael didn’t seem to mind.

“Thanks, dad…” The oldest, with bags under his eyes even though he’d been sleeping for more intervals, tiredly said with a nod.

“Yeah, I sure needed this…” Donatello spoke, about to get up to reach the bowl, but Splinter handed it to him before he could so much as move. Purple gave him a tired smile.

“Mikeeeey…” Leonardo gave a whiney quiet call after receiving his own bowl, tapping on his sleeping baby brother on Raph’s lap, “Mikey, wake up…”

“You can leave him.” Splinter assured, “I will reheat his soup once he wakes up.”

“‘M… ‘M awake…” The youngest slurred, fidgeting between Raph’s arms.

Splinter smiled again, handing Orange and Red the soup after Michelangelo managed to sit up. It took a great effort as Leonardo and Donatello were getting kicked and almost spilled their soups.

“Thanks…” Orange thanked, drinking his beverage.

“We’re really sorry f’r invading y’r space…” Raph said guiltily, “…and worrying you.”

Splinter shook his head, “No, no. No worries, my sons. I miss having you stay together for a while, anyway.”

All of them smiled, except Blue who suddenly spoke,

“Hey, we shouldn’t be _apologizing to dad_. We should be _blaming Donnie_ …” Leonardo interjected with a roll of an eye, “He’s the one who refused to use the heater in his room when it was freezing…”

“I did not ‘refuse to use it'… I simply failed to remember that it was off… A huge difference…” Donatello spoke in a hoarse tone, the flu having worse effects on him since he’d been ill the longest.

“Right, and the sudden temperature drop didn’t give you any hint?” Leo kept arguing while Splinter took his seat on the small couch.

Donatello only rolled his eyes in response, and Jitsu was wondering how Purple had not yanked Leo off his shoulder yet. Probably because he was exhausted.

The rat man finally tore his gaze off his relaxing sons and looked up at the TV, to discover that they had been watching one of his movies, much to his surprise. He’d thought that with the amount of time they’d been sitting here, the boys would be watching their favorite movies of Jupiter Jim, and not ‘bore themselves with Lou Jitsu’ like they’d told him one day.

“Hey, dad, why don’t you join us here…?” Orange was the one to suggest while looking up at him.

Splinter chuckled, “I (and I believe you too) do not wish you to handle me while being sick when you are sick. That would be a disaster.”

“Nah… You can’t get sick from us, dad…” Blue said, refusing to change his position and look up, “And the proof is that you’re in the same room with us without getting the virus.” Leo nuzzled his head a bit more on his twin’s shoulder.

“As dumb as that sounded, Leo’s right…” Donatello said, slurping his soup, “We cannot infect you that easily. Your immune system is stronger than ours…”

“C’mon, Pops.” Red urged, “Besides, that’s a great movie. Why don’t you come and tell us about y’r experiences while workin’ on it?”

Splinter was a bit dumbfounded by the sweet attitude, but decided to embrace it rather than question it. He nodded softly and joined his sons on the floor, wrapping all of them with the blanket. The former star then began to tell the tale and was happy that his sons were actually eager to listen.

“… Aaaah… The good days before I…” Splinter was about to finish but realized what he had just blurted, looking up to see his sons giving him confused looks.

“Before you what, Pop?” Leonardo asked.

Splinter lowered his sight to the ground, sighing heavily, “My sons, I… You have to know that my mutation day… was not the best day I had lived through…”

“But…” Michelangelo’s head peaked as he said slowly, “You had us in that day… right?”

“That is right…” Splinter replied, “Having you in my life was the best thing that happened. But-”

“No buts, dad.” Leonardo interrupted, “I don’t wanna hear you talk bad about yourself. Without you, we would’ve been dead meat by now. Be proud of that.”

Splinter’s eyebrow raised in how casually Blue said that.

“What Leo _means_ is that you’re a great dad, Pop…” Raph said, “Regardless of what you are, we appreciate you in our life.”

“And being a rat doesn’t make you less awesome…” Leo said softly.

“If anything, we've known Splinter _more_ than Lou Jitsu…” Mikey stated cleverly, a big (exhausted) smile on his face.

Splinter closed his eyes and smiled after receiving a big quadruple hug,

“We love you, daddy-o.” Donatello said with a hoarse tones, and the rest hummed in agreement.

“AAAlright, I see what you are doing…” Splinter chuckled when the hug went for too long, “You’re just enjoying the warmth of my fur, aren’t you?”

“What’s the fun in having it _all_ to yourself?” Blue said teasingly, still clinging on Splinter.

“That’s what I thought…” Lou Jitsu said, though not complaining.

A few seconds later, the turtles were snoozing peacefully while cuddling him, trying to get as much warmth as they could. Splinter stayed awake, however, the words of his boys repeating in his head. They were right. The past did not define him; what he was right now did. He wouldn’t change his life for what he has. And if his sons were with him right now, the best thing that had happened to him, then what else would he ask for?

Love.

Well, his sons gave him just that. Maybe more than he’d ever asked. That was the true meaning of it. Not being loved because of who you pretend to be, but because of who you are.

Taking out the almost-decade-old card that was hidden in his robe, he read over it again.

A warm smile crossed his face, exhaling silently.

Yeah, perhaps he would thank Draxum one day for doing what he did to him…

.

.

.

With a punch in the face…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was really pointless, but I love it!

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is! Six Hugs is finished! I surely enjoyed writing it, and it was fun seeing the amazing feedback it received. Besides, that’s my first fic to get a 100 Kudos!! It holds a special place in my heart!
> 
> Contact me on Twitter! You can find me [@UniPopcorn1414](https://twitter.com/UniPopcorn1414)! <3
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed! <3

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fearless](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24525664) by [UnicornPopcorn14](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnicornPopcorn14/pseuds/UnicornPopcorn14)




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